BT 






Ml Lrll 11 1 U v3 jt± V LL : 






[ISAIAH LXIII. I.] 






OR 






CHRIST FOR ALL THE WORLD, 






AND 






ALL THE WORLD FOR CHRIST. 






BY THE 

REV. ALEXANDER BALLOCH "GROSART, 

First United Presbyterian Churchy Kinross, 






Printed for Private Circulation. 






1863. 









MIGHTY TO SAVE: 



[ISAIAH LXIII. I.] 
OR 

CHRIST FOR ALL THE WORLD, 



ALL THE WORLD FOR CHRIST. 



n 

/ 



REV. ALEXANDER BALLOCH GROSART, 

Firfl United Presbyterian Chtirch, Kinrofs ; 
Author of " Little Sins? &>c. 



Isabella. — " Alas ! alas ! 

Why all the souls that wfre, were forfeit once : 
And He, that might the vantage best hate took, 
Found out the remedy : How would you be, 
If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
But judge you as you are ? 0 think on that : 
And mercy then will breathe within your lips, 
Like man new made." — 

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. II. 2. 

" How poor ! how rich ! how abject ! how august ! 
How complicate ! how wonderful is man ! 
How passing wonder He who made him such." — Young. 

' One place alone had ceas'd to hold its prey ; 

A form had press' d it and was there no more ; 
The garments of the grave beside it lay, 
Where once they wrapp'd Him on the rocky floor. 

He only with returning footsteps broke 
Th' eternal calm wherewith the tomb was bound ; 

Among the sleeping dead alone He woke, 
And bless'd with outstretched hands the host around. »' 

V. (Mrs Clivk.) 



PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
1863. 



3 I 205 

Lea:., kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom. 

Lead Thou me on ; 
The night is dark, and I am far from home ; 

Lead Thou me on ; 
Keep Thou my feet ; I do not a(k to fee 
The diftant fcene ; one ftep enough for ma 

I was not ever thus, nor pray'd that Thou 

Shouldft lead me on ; 
I loved to choofe and fee my path ; but now 

Lead Thou me on ! 
I loved the garifh day, and, fpite of fears, 
Pride ruled my will : Remember not paft years ! 

So long Thy power has blefTed me, fure it ftill 

Will lead me on 
O'er moor and fen, o ? er crag and torrent, till 

The night is gone, 
And with the morn thofe angel faces fmile, 
^liich I have loved long fmce. and loft awhile ! 

John* Henry Newman. 



* ■ Reft, weary foul ! 
The penalty is borne, the ranfom paid, 
For all thy fms full fatisfaction made ; 
Strive not to do thyfelf what Chrift has done. 
Claim the free gift ; and, make the joy thine own ; 
No more by pangs of guilt and fear diftrefTed, 

Reft, fweetly reft ! 

H. L. L. (Sir ROUNDEL! 
Palmer's " Book of Praife." 1S62.1 



205449 
1 13 



nx 



TO 



JOHN BICKER TON, 
WILLIAM BROWN, 
DAVID CHRISTIE, 
WILLIAM FOOT, Tilly ochie, 
JOHN HONEYMAN, 



PETER MALCOM, 

PETER MALCOM, Dichendad, 

JOHN MONCUR, 

JAMES ROBB, 

JAMES ROBERTSON, 



AND 

CHARLES SINCLAIR, Cockairny, 

My Seffion, and " true yoke- fellows 

/ dedica te 

THIS BOOK, 

' With cordial regards and gratitude for their fatherly 
kindnefs and unfailing co-operation in every 
" work of faith and labour of love" 
roer fnce I came among them. 

\ »Ps\ .-. •*•«» 

Srethreti) T count not myjelf to have apprehended: but this one thing 
I do, forgetting thofe things which are behind, and reaching forth unto thofe 
things which are before, I prefs toward the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Chrifl Jefus. Let us, therefore, as many as be per- 
fect, be thus minded" (Philip, iii. 13-15). 

Their affectionate Minifter "in the Lord," 

A. B. G. 



" 1 Believe and repent.' There goeth out an Almighty power with the 
ministerial word, and giveth power to believers. Where God commandeth 
He helpeth. His Word is clothed with an Almighty power. And there- 
fore though we exhort men to do fo and fo, we fay not they can do it them- 
felves, but together with the fpeech there goeth a commanding power. The 
Spirit of God clotheth the Word. God fpeaketh according to our meafure, 
worketh according to His own. We are men, and are to do things by 
reafon and understanding. God fpeaks to us by way of open reafon, and 
mewing grouDds of reafon. But when He comes to give ftrength and 
power to reafon, all moral power or reafon will do no good without inward 
ftrength ; and therefore He works mightily, powerfully, and by way of per- 
fuafion and reafon, and all to condefcend to our manner, yet ftill all the while 
as a God. .... There is no man converted hit his heart will tell him that 
God was beforehand with hi?n. God enforceth goodnefs on men ; they 
willingly refift it There is no man that withftandeth God's workings, but 
his heart will tell him that the fault is altogether in himfelf. .... I will 
always hope well of them that careftdly and diligmtly come within God's 
reath. Thofe that will come within the power and reach of God, never 
def pair of them." — Dr Richard Sibbes on 2 Cor. iv. 7 (Works, Vol. IV. 
Pp. 385, 386.) 



PRE FA TOR Y NOTE, 



HAVE placed in the title-page of this, 
my fecond venture in the propofed Series, 
the words, Christ for all the world, 

AND ALL THE WORLD FOR CHRIST, not 

only to thereby truthfully defcribe the 
contents of my book, but likewife to 
attract a chance lifter-up of it. I was 
much ftruck with an entry in the Diary of that holy and 
remarkable man Stephen Grellet, the French Quaker, bearing 
upon this. During his early fpiritual ftruggles in the quag- 
mire of unbelief, he tells us : — " I now took up again the 
works of William Penn, and opened upon ' No Crofs, No 
Crown.' The title alone reached to my heart."* I do not 
know whither my fmall book may go. I fhall be grateful if my 
title-page mould be fimilarly ufed to woo any Chrift-feeking foul 
to read of Him who is " Mighty to Save," — yea, " able to fave 
to the uttermofl them that come unto God by Him." 

* " Memoirs of the Life and Gofpel Labours of Stephen Grellet." 
Edited by Benjamin Seebohm. Third Edition. Two Vols. 8vo. 1862. 
Bennet. Pp. 16, 17. 

If 




6 



refatory Note 



In reference, again, to the fecondary title, Christ for all 
the world, and all the world for Christ, it can fcarcely 
be needful to deprecate any perverfion of this into any approach 
to the creed of what is called Univerfalifm, or Maurice-ifm. 
Holding, as I do, that the theology of Auguftine and John 
Calvin (which, by the way, is fomething very different from 
what many fo-called Calvinifts mifreprefent it, juft as John 
Wilkes had to complain that he was not a Wilkite) is the 
grander! and moft mafculine, as well as trued, interpretation of 
the doctrines of the Bible, I believe, with all my heart, and 
foul, and confcience, the Pauline teaching concerning Ele6lion, 
Predeftination, Sovereignty, and their cognates. As in the 
prefent book I have tried to (hew, I confider thefe mighty 
truths to be not lefs neceffary to the plan of Redemption, than 
are the correfpondent laws of gravitation, &c, that gird and 
grafp the phyfical univerfe, to it. To my mind, refufe to 
God Election, Predeftination, fupreme Sovereignty, and Salva- 
tion, in beginning, middle, and end wholly of His grace, and 
you ungod God, to appropriate Edwards's weighty expremon ; 
while you may as well try to get the law of gravitation out of 
the univerfe, as Election out of the Bible, and specifically out 
of our earth as out of the Epistle to the Romans. But what I 
muft maintain with intenfeft belief is, that in taking his ftand 
upon thefe dodlrines as the very truth of God, as interpenetrat- 
ing the whole Bible in Old and New Teftament alike, the 
minifter of the gofpel who would rightly difcharge his office, 
muft proclaim that in nowife do they hamper or hinder the 
univerfal offer of a prefent falvation to every man who will take 
it from the Lord Jefus Chrift, on His own gracious terms. 



Prefatory Note. 



7 



Nay, that Election, Predeftination, Sovereignty, and the like, 

ARE HARMONIZED IN THE DIVINE PLAN WITH THE PERSONAL 
RESPONSIBILITY OF EVERY MAN WHO REFUSES SUCH OFFERED 

salvation. I may put it in this way : — I know not the man, 
out of hell, upon whom I may not prefs Chrift as a Saviour ; I 
know not the man whom I have not a right to hold guilty who 
refufes to accept Him. Experience and the dark roll of the 
loft tell all too mournfully, that de facto myriads reject, neglect 
the " great falvation," fpurn the claim and perifh. But that 
does not touch the thing de jui-e. Hence my words, Christ 
for all the world, by which I would bring " good news" to 
every man the wide world over whofe ear and heart I might 
reach ■ and all the world for Christ, by which I would 
affert my Mailer's claim upon the allegiance and love of every 
man. I am not careful to protect myfelf from any who, with 
thefe explanations, may mifconftrue either my title-page or my 
teaching. I have no wifh to ftir the fires of controverfy as to 
limited or universal atonement. I look at the great and 
bleffed truth practically. I believe the Atonement of the Lord 
Jefus Chrift to be limited to thofe who accept Him. I 
believe it to be universal to the extent of including every 
man who does accept Him. And I alfo believe that it is a 
hideous diftortion of the gofpel to fo preach of Sovereignty 
and Decree, of Election and Predeftination, as for a moment 
to make thefe hinder a man's believing and being faved. Man, 
every man, is guilty who disbelieves. Every man who perifhes 
is self-destroyed. I know a mifcalled Calvinift who prays 
habitually after this fort — " Lord, if there be any of Thine own 
elect before Thee, do Thou blefs them." I would fhudder to fo 



8 



Prefatory Note. 



pray. For I read, i Tim. ii. i, "I exhort that . . fupplications, 
prayers, interceffions, and giving of thanks, be made for all 

MEN." 

There is another matter, corelative, about which it may be 
well here to fay a few words. A difciple of Auguftine and of 
Calvin, in the doctrines already named, I am equally, and with 
equal abfolutenefs and unreferve their difciple in regard to 
man's, univerfal man's, native-born and thorough depravity, and 
confequent need of heart-change, by the renewing of God the 
Holy Spirit. I hold with them that man is utterly unable, of 
himfelf. to "believe;" and fo throughout. "Faith," in my 
creed, is " the gift of God," not a thing to be excogitated by us. 
I find both fets of "do6trines" in my Bible. Of the rationale 
of the divine operation, I know nothing, becaufe nothing has 
been revealed. But, as in the other matters, I am fure that the 
demand from us to " believe," is harmonifed in the divine plan 
with inability in ourfelves. Ability from Chrift by the Spirit 
allures me of that, ab eve?itu. I cannot tell how they touch ; 
but I believe God can, and I believe I'll know by and by. For 
the prefent, I apprehend our part is to " hold faft" the revela- 
tion of a reconciled Father in Chrift, an ever-interceding Lord 
and Saviour, our prophet, prieft, and king, and an ever-prefent 
God, the Holy Spirit, accompanying the word wherever preached 
with His gracious power. 

Here I w^ould call two ancient witneffes to illuilrate and con- 
firm what I have juft faid. 

The great and good David Clarkfon, in his noble fermon 
entitled, " Chrift's Gracious Invitation to Sinners," from Rev. 
iii. 20, in combating the objection "that fmners of themfelves 



Prefatory Note. 



9 



are not able to open, the heart being too faft (hut," among 
other things replies — 

" Sinners may do more than they ufe to do, than they are 
willing to do ; and therefore there is reafon to call upon them. 
They cannot open : [but] though they can do nothing fpirit- 
ually that tends thereto, yet, in a natural and moral way, they 
may do much more than we fee done by any of them. Spi- 
ritual good is above the power of nature \ without Chrift no 
fuch things can be done. But that which is morally good they 
may do, and that which looks towards opening, though it do 
not reach it. They cannot fubdue the corruption of nature, 
nor of themfelves crucify the flefli, &c, but they can avoid the 
outward acts of grofs fins. Mere moral men we fee can do it 
without the power of higher principles. 

" They cannot free themfelves from the miieries into which 
fin has plunged them ; but they can affent to a plain word dif- 
covering their mifery, and confider, and think of it as they do 
of other things which are of confequence. 

" They cannot enlighten their own darkened minds, nor 
mollify their hardened hearts ; but they can place themfelves 
in the way w T here the light fhines, and where mollifying influ- 
ences are wont to fall, and where the Sun of righteoufnefs has 
appointed to rife. 

" They cannot meditate, nor read, nor pray, nor hear fpirit- 
ually ; but they can attend the ordinances as they do any other 
ordinary bufinefs which concerns them. 

" They cannot convey a healing virtue into the waters of 
the sanctuary, nor put themfelves in when the waters are 
troubled, no more than the impotent man that lay at the pool 



I o 



Prefatory Note. 



of Bethefda could do it ; but they can wait at the pool, and 
there they are in the way where Jefus may meet them and cure 
their impotency, how long foever they have laboured under it. 

" They cannot command a gale of wind, but they can put the 
veffel into the channel and fpread their fails that they may be 
ready to take the advantage of a fpiritual gale whenever it mail 
pleafe the Spirit of Chrifl to bellow. 

" It feems very hard, and they would make advantage of it 
who over-magnify the power of nature to the prejudice of the 
grace of Chrifl — that the Lord mould condemn men for not 
doing that which they have no power to do. But I take it for 
an undoubted truth, that among ft thofe who are in a capacity to 
ufe the 7neans, He never condemns any who really do what they 
can to be saved. None perish who do their utmost to 
avoid condemnation. Amongft the moft zealous afferters of 
free grace, I find none that queftion it. None who mall be 
found at ChrilTs left hand at the lafl day will be able to fay 
truly, Lord, I ufed all the power that I had, to avoid the mifery 
and prevent that dreadful fentence. It may feem harm that 
any mould perifh for not opening to Chrifl when they were 
not able to open ; but there are none perifh who do all they 
can to open to Him."* 

* From the folio, 1696, pp. 473, 474. The above fermon, in common 
with the entire volume, having been publifhed pofthumoufly — under the 
editorfhip of John Howe and Mead — explains perhaps why no acknowledg- 
ment of indebtedness to a previoufly publifhed fermon or treatife from the 
fame text is not made. While Clarkfon's fermon overflows with his own 
profound and mafterly thinking and richly fcriptural illuftration, it yet 
reveals a careful reading of Obadiah Sedgwick's ineftimable little volume, 
entitled "The Riches of Grace difplayed in the offer and tender of Salvation 



Prefatory Note. 



Again, the excellent John Bifco. in his ' ; Glorious Myflery 
of God's Mercy, or a precious Cordial for fainting Souls " ( 1 647 ). 
thus fpeaks of the demands of God from us : — 

" The gofpel promifeth and gives whatsoever it prefcribeth. 
Look, whatfoever God requires of His by way of duty, He hath 
promifed to give them in fuitable fupplies of supernatural ability. 
As for inftance, firft^ He calls for a fpiritual obedience to all 
His commands, and He promifeth ' to write His laws in the 
hearts of His people, to make them able to walk in His 
ftatutes ' (Heb. viii. 9, 10. : Ezek. xi. 19, 20. : and xxxvi.). 
Secondly, As the Lord requires newnefs and onenefs of heart, 
fo He promifeth to give this onenefs and newnefs of heart 
(Ezek. xi. 19). Thirdly, As He commands us to repent, to 
mortify fin, fo He hath c fent his Son to give repentance,' and 
He hath promifed 'to fubdue our iniquities for us' (Micah 
vii. 19). Fourthly. God commands us 'to love Him with all 
our heart,' and He promifeth • to circumfife our hearts that we 
may love Him with all our heart' (Deut. xxx). Fifthly, He 
calls for a fpiritual knowledge of God in Chrift, and He hath 
given His promife that all His b dnall be taught of the Lord and 
know him from the greateft to the lead.' " * 

Oh if men would but accept the two halves of the great 
completed circle — God's ability, man's inability — man guilt}', 

to poor Sinners, wherein is fet out the gracious behaviour of Chrift ftanding 
at the door and knocking for entrance ; the dutiful behaviour of Tinners in 
hearing Chrift's voice and opening to him ; and the comfortable event upon 
them both " (2d Ed., 1658, iSmo). 

* Pp. 227, 228. Xathanael Church condenfes the above into the aphorifm. 
'• Good inclinations and abilities are both from God alone : He wills the 
work and works the will." 



12 



Prefatory Note. 



depraved, worthlefs, helplefs, and falvation by Chrift, miniftered 
by God the Holy Spirit in divine adaptation to man's need — 
without attempting the humanly impoffible discover}' of the 
nexus that unites the two. " A blind man lets himfelf be led 
by a child. So muft we be brought to feel and to acknowledge 
to ourfelves that we are blind ; and then the time may come 
when a little child ihall lead us." * Be ir the prayer and 
endeavour of writer and reader to be brought to this : and then, 
in the fpirit of Mifs Charlotte Elliot's pricelefs hymn, we lhall 
be able to fey 

4 4 Just as I am — without one plea 
But that Thy blood was fried for me. 
And that thou bidd'ft me come to thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come ! 

"Just as I am, and waiting not 
To rid my foul of one dark blot, 
To Thee, whofe blood can cleanfe each fpot, 
O Lamb of God, I come." 

With all my heart I would greet even* reader and fay, " I leave 
thefe things with you. Oh that you would often think of them, 
efpecially in foul diflrefses, and be ever drawing from them till 
your hearts be even brimful of heavenly confolation." t 

Intending this Series for ordinary Englilh-reading readers 
mainly, I feel that it would be out of place to enter into any 
critical difquifitions or analyfes of the original of the words 
upon which the feveral volumes are bafed, in, at any rate, the 

* Gueffes at Truth. By the Brothers Hare. 2d Series, vol ii. p. 209. 
3d Ed., 1S55. 

f Dr Jacomb. "Sermons on Romans viii. 1-4."' 4:0. 1672, p. 316. 



Prefatory Note. 



13 



body of the Sermons. Perhaps it may neverthelefs be kindly 
conceded to me, that the fame objection does not apply to any 
feparate prefatory remarks or annotation that I may be led to 
make. Thefe, being independent on the matter offered primarily 
to my own congregation, feem to admit of explanations which 
only thofe acquainted with the languages of the original may 
be able fully to follow. This caveat has partial reference to 
the prefent volume ; but in the third I muft examine critically 
the Hebrew and Greek elucidated. 

Looking at the paffage and context from which I have fought 
to " publifh" the "good news" of the Lord Jefus Chrift as 
being 

" Mighty to Save/' 

in their varying, and even conflicting, interpretations by fcholars, 
I think it right, as I certainly deem it eafy, to eftablifh the 
exactitude and critical authority of my reprefentation of Chrift 
as the One who is thus " Mighty to Save." 

(a.) It fee?ns to be vety much forgotten by the Covwientaiors, 
even by men like Dr Jofeph Addifon Alexander of America, — 
whofe Commentary on Ifaiah, with all its deficiency of glow, 
forms an invaluable contribution of materials for its accurate 
expofition \ and who, as man, fcholar, and divine, has received, 
as he deferved, the eloquent and pathetic praife of Dr Charles 
Hodge, clarum et ve?ierabile nomen — that the book is a prophecy, 
and therefore fpeaks, in the fubftance of it, of things yet to take 
place. It is aftonifhing how the element of futurity is left out 
in Commentaries and Expofitions bearing to be the productions 
of men in the "high places" of our Colleges and Churches ; 
aftonifhing how the prophets are looked at rather as fen-ants 



14 



Prefatory Note. 



of God explaining the prefent — which was their office likewife 
— than as feers piercing the future. Ifaiah and Ezekiel have 
been robbed of their moft Chriftful utterances by this per- 
verfely-ingenious fyftem. * I alk my readers to carry this 
principle with them to the reading of the prophets, viz., that 
the events and conditions of the people defcribed are not 
delineations of what was exiftent when the prophet delivered 
his " burden," but future. This, I apprehend, fweeps away, 
at once and Scripturally, all that miferable pottering over 
occurrences contemporaneous with the feer and his " burdens," 
fo frequent on the Continent and among ourfelves. 

* I relegate to this footnote an example. We turn to Ezek. xxxiv. We 
read therein a very appalling and very mournful defcription of the worldli- 
nefs and utter godleffnefs of the "fhepherds" of God's people. Expofitors 
accumulate authorities to prove the then worldly and godlefs ftate of the 
priefts and other fervants of the fandluary. They overlook, not merely the 
opening words, vers. I, 2, "And the word of the Lord came unto me, fay- 
ing, Son of man, prophefy againfb the fhepherds of Ifrael, prophefy, and 
fay," but the promif e-cham£ier of all the after-reprefentations. A thought- 
ful consideration will fatisfy that Ezekiel looks far onward into the future, 
and launches the terrible " woe" againft a ftate of matters that JJiould then 
be. Infinitely tender it was in God to place the warning fo long on record, 
nor do I doubt it touched and faved many of the " fhepherds." But further, 
fee how this elimination of the future abftracls the very life-blood of the 
prophecy. At ver. 23, a glorious promife gleams out of the " woes :" " I 
will fet up one Shepherd, and He fhall feed them, even my fervant David : 
He fhall feed them, and He fhall be their Shepherd." That is to fay, in 
the fo fad crifis. when all the appointed fhepherds mould be found faithlefs, 
One was to be "fet up." Well, the crifis came — the very condition defcribed 
— while the Lord Jefus Chrift was on the earth ; and reverting to the pro- 
mife, as He confronted worldly and godlefs Scribes and Pharifees, He 



Prefatory Note. 



{b.) By comparing Scripture with Scripture, which is the beft 
of all expeditions, it appears to me very clear that, inafmuch as 
Edom is a fynonyme for Efau (Gen. xxv. 30), and Efau for the 
adverfaries of God's people (Amos i. 11 ; cf. alfo under 4), 
while Bozrah (reprefented by the modern El-Bufaireh, firft 
vifited by Burckhardt * ) was a chief city of Edom, it follows 
neceffarily that the terrible conflict delineated in our text and 
context is a prophetic dilation of one of the many fmitings of 
Edom, wrapped up in the " woes" and denunciations of nearly 
all the prophets, and efpecially Obadiah. Stricken Bozrah 

calmly faid, " I am the good Shepherd," even that " One Shepherd" who 
in the fulnefs of time was to come. Read John x. 1-18, efpecially vers. 8, 
10, 11, 14. However the prefent may have lent its hues, to the vivifying, 
illuftrating, enforcing of the prophetic meffages, it is to mifs their innermoft 
bleffednefs to flop fhort of Chrift and the Gofpel-Day. 

I would afk if it were not better to render the Hebrew in Ezek xxxiv. 23, 
not David, as a proper name, but as " Beloved," the often-recurring New 
Teftament name of Christ. David (*T)^j) means " Beloved," while David 

• T 

the king was long dead in the time of EzekieL I am aware that David is 
ufed as a type of his mightier Son, but never, I apprehend, after his death. 
Moreover, a like rendering of David in the Pfalms brings out with precious 
vividnefs the defigned antitype. I would obferve, in conclufion here, that 
to apply the denunciations of Ezek. xxxiv. and elfewhere to the then 
"fhepherds of Ifrael," makes them no longer prophetic, difconnecls them 
from the promife of the " One Shepherd," and empties the Lord's own 
announcement — "/am the good Shepherd" — of its bleffed fignificance. 
I might mew how Ifaiah, Zechariah, and other prophets, have been fimilarly 
darkened. 

* Travels in Syria, 407. Cf. article under Bozrah in Dr Smith's " Dic- 
tionary of the Bible." Alfo, Porter, in Kitto's Cyclopaedia, as re-edited by 
Dr Alexander. 



i6 



Prefatory Note. 



and defolated Edom furnifh hifloric and indubitable atteftation 
of the fulfilment of the threatenings. The warfare with Edom, 
in one of its unrecorded incidents, therefore, is the hifloric bafe 
of Ifaiah's fetting-forth of the Lord as the dread Avenger of all 
who oppofe Him in His people. (Cf. Ps. cxxxvii. 7.) 

(c.) This being fo, we have in the words, "I that fpeak in 
righteoufnefs, mighty to fave," a hi/loric facl transfigured into a 
proclamation of the grace of the 7nighty Being delineated towards 
thofe who " turn " to Him. The fhadow is the meafure of the 
light ; and the preliminary " fury," and vengeance, and terror, 
and bloodfhed of God as a " man of war," only the more mag- 
nify His love and mercy as a Saviour. Be it remembered that 
there had been a fpecific promife of fuch a Saviour (Ifa. xix. 20). 
Earlier in Ifaiah He had pronounced judgment to be His 
"ftrange work" (xxviii. 21), whereas He delighteth in mercy" 
(Micah vii. 18). I know nothing finer than the outbeaming of 
the grace of God in the "mighty to fave" of the otherwife 
dreadful verfe. 

(d.) Apart from the words as mere words, the acls and attri- 
butes afcribed to Him who is " mighty to fave " feparate the 
fpeaker from all merely human, from all created power, and 
lead us to Him whofe " delights were with the fons of men " 
long anterior to His manifeflation as the Meffiah. Cf. ver. 4, 
8, 9, 10; with which alfo Ps. xciv. 1 ; A6ls iv. 12. I would 
alfo wifh these direft references of all to the Lord, Ifa. xxxiv. 6, 
and Jer. xlix. 13, to be read and pondered. 

(e.) It is peculiarly interefting, and, as I take it, decifive as to 
Chrift being the fpeaker, to compare in the original our text 
with Rev. xix. 1-3. Let it be kept in mind here that John — 



Prefatory Note. 



'7 



equally the penman of Revelation and the fourth Gofpel — is 
above all others the revealer of The Word. Read alfo Rev. 
xix. 19-21, and Ifa. xlv. 19, 20. 

(f. ) The good old divines, e. g, the unapproached tranflators 
of our Englifh Bible ; Matthew Poole, and numerous other of 
the older worthies, had no doubts eo?ieerning the fpeaker being 
Clmft. Thus in the headings of our verfion we read, " Chrift 
fheweth who He is, ver. 1, what His victory over his enemies, 
ver. 2-6, and what His mercy toward His church, ver. 7-9. 
In His juft wrath He remembereth His free mercy, ver. 10-14." 
Poole again thus heads the chapter in his " Annotations,'* 
" Chrift' s victory over His enemies, and mercy toward His 
church, in judgment remembering mercy." The men who thus 
infcribed Christ over this chapter were fcholars befide whom 
recent pretentious fciolifts are boors. Dr Ebenezer Henderfon, 
alike in his tranflation and Expofition brings out the right 
reference and meaning. I refer my readers to his admirable 
Commentary, and I beg here to introduce his rendering of the 
verfe :— 

' 4 Who is this that cometh from Edom ? 
In purple array from Bozrah ? 
This, that is glorious in His apparel, 
Advancing (lately in the greatnefs of His ftrength ? 
It is I, the Announcer of righteoufnefs, — 
Mighty to fave." 

I may add a few words from his Expofition : " In prophetic 
vifion a triumphant conqueror is difcovered, arrayed in military 
attire, and returning from Idumea, the fcene of battle and 
victory. To excite attention, the queftion is put, who He can 



18 



Prefatory Note. 



be ] To which He Himfelf replies, in language which leaves us 
at no lofs to doubt that He is the divine Logos or Speaker, who 
from the beginning revealed the will of God to men • and as 
the Angel or Meffenger of the divine prefence, acted as the 
Protector and Saviour of ancient Ifrael." Vitringa, Maurer, 
Day, recognife Chrift as the fpeaker. Dr J. A. Alexander may 
alfo be profitably ftudied. 

I think that I may now affume that, in appropriating the 
gracious and very precious words, " Mighty to fave," to our 
Lord Jefus Chrift, I do fo, not by an accommodation, but as 
giving the very " mind of the Spirit." 

Like " Little Sins," the prefent volume is an expanfion 
and adaptation of a fermon preached in the ordinary courfe of 
my miniftrations. The footnotes and quotations are added. 
The larger footnotes will be found at the clofe, and are referred 
to by the letters (a), (6), &c. I may be permitted to afk that 
the related notes be read on fmifhing the feveral divifions of 
the difcourfe. 

I have gratefully to acknowledge the many kind, approving 
words that have reached me from far and near, from friends 
cleric and .laic, concerning " Little Sins." In reply to the 
numerous requefts for copies, which I was unable to meet, I 
have the pleafure to ftate that Meffrs James Nisbet & Co., the 
eminent publishers, London, will publiJJi immediately a new 
and pretty edition. I fervently hope that it, in its wider fphere, 
and " Mighty to save," in its narrower, will meet with the fame 
welcome, and be ufeful in the fame rewarding way. 

And now, in the words of dear old Thomas Hall, " The good 
Lord awaken us, and humble us all for our own fins, and for 



Prefatory Note. 



19 



the fins of the times we live in, and make us to mourn for the 
things we cannot mend, and enable us to receive the truth in 
the love of it, and make us at laft to ferve him with gladnefs 
of heart in the abundance of all things f * and in the farewell 
words of holy John Sheffield : " Thou haft here a refemblance 
of Chrift and of thyfelf. Of Him a dark and dim one, one 
every way fhort ; fuch a one as I could make, not fuch a one as 
He is, or ought to have been made of Him. But of thyfelf it 
may not be fuch a one as thou art, but what ihou oughtft to be : 
and if this fall fhort too, though I fhall be the lefs happy, yet 
art thou the more happy." f 

A. B. G. 

ist Manse, 
Kinross, March 30. 1863. 

* 11 The Riling Sun, or the Sun of Righteoufnefs Shining upon the Sons 
of Unrighteoufnefs " (8vo, 1654. " To the Reader"), 
f Expontion of Amos iv.-ix. 4to, 1661. 




" Sermons preached are, for the moft part, as mowers of rain that water 
for the inftant ; fuch as may tickle the ear and warm the affections, and put 
the foul into a pofture of obedience. Hence it is that men are ofttimes fer- 
mon-fick, as fome are fea-fick ; very ill, much troubled for the prefent, but 
by and by all is well again as they were. But printed fermons or other dif- 
courfes are as fnow that lies longer on the earth. They are longer-lived. 
They preach when the author cannot, and which is more, when he is not. 
Sights, as they come fooner to the eye than founds to the ear, fo they abide 
longer. Audible words are more tranfient ; vifible words more permanent. 
The one may make the ear more attentive, but the other the memory more 
retentive ; both in themfelves excelling." — Philip Goodwin (Evangelical 
Cd?n7?iunicant). 



' 4 Wife fayings often fall on barren ground ; but a kind word is never 
thrown away." — Thoughts in the Cloifter and the Crowd (Helps). 



6 4 If thefe little fparks of holy fire which I have heaped together do not 
give life to your prepared and already enkindled fpirit, yet they will fome- 
times help to entertain a thought, to actuate a paffion, to employ and hallow 
a fancy." — Jeremy Taylor (Epi/ile Dedicatory to Life of ' Chri/l), 



" Better to fit at humble hearths, where fimple fouls confide their all, 
Than fband and knock at the groined gate, to crave a hearing in the hall. 
Oh ! ye winged ones — fhall I ftand a moment in your Ihining ranks ? 
Will ye pafs me the golden cup ? Only tears can give you thanks." 

PaJJion Flowers (Mrs Howe). 



"Mighty to Save." 



" Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from 
Bozrah ? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatnefs 
of his ftrength ? I that fpeak in righteoufnefs, mighty to fave.' 1 — Isa. 
lxiii. I. 



waters, fo utterly tranquil, even when, through ftorm and gloom, 
" there is forrow on the fea" (Jer. xlix. 23), that the tinieft and 
moll fragile fliell at the bottom is not ftirred, nor in the flighteft 
abraided by the turmoil above. 

It feems to me that this remarkable fact and phenomenon 
may be taken as a fymbol of our bleffed Lord, regarded as 
at once " the man Chrift Jefus " and very God. In His 
human nature there was a well of tendernefs, that was eafily 
ftirred to fofteft tears ; a depth of yearning love that was eager 
to flow out, and pour itfelf into the lowlieft heart that would 
lay itfelf upon His broad bofom • a meafurelefs amplitude of 




CIENCE tells us that, underlying all the 
tumult and reftleffnefs of the waves of the 
ocean, over which the winds trample, there 
is a vaft ftraium of altogether motionlels 



22 



" Mighty to Save!' 



fympathy, that was ever ready to bear the heavieft, yea, all the 
burdens of others; and, I would add, a large and generous 
charity, that was quick to anticipate confeflion and to lavifli 
forgivenefs, — meeting the penitent confeflion and requeft of 
the returning prodigal, " Make me as one of thy hired fer- 
vants," with the welcome of a fon.* But, underlying all, there 
was the eternal calm — unftirred, unmoved — of His divinity 7 . 
What I have juft fpoken of was as the tolling of the furface 
waves, that leaves the infinite depths of calm — untouched. 

We cannot tell how the human and divine were united 
in " God manifeft in the flefh" (i Tim. hi. 16). It was not to 
be expected that we mould, with the leffer myftery of the 
union of our own body and foul unfolved. But we accept 
the fact ; and thus accepting it, furely the point which I 
have indicated and fymbolifed is one of its moft unearthly, 
moft impreffive, and moft magnificent characteriftics. Think, 
my friends, of how " mighty " thofe hands were, — the very 
hands that had upbuilt the univerfe, — that were yet ftretched 
out as gentle human hands, ay, that would not finite back, 
even when fuch infult and wrong as this happened, " Then did 
they spit ix his face, and buffeted Him • and others fmote Him 
with the palms of their hands'' (Matt. xxvi. 67, 68). Think 
of the infinitude of power that llumbered in thofe eyes, one 
tender pleading "look" from which melted to agonifing tears 
His denier, and one flafhing forth of which, in interrogation, 
fmote to the earth, as though they had been dead, the mailed 

* Cf. Luke xv. 17-19 with verfe 21. Mark, the Father's welcome 
makes the poor prodigal forget his intended requeft to be made a " hired 
fervant." I take this opportunity of emphatically commending the ex- 
pofition of this parable by Dr Obadiah Grew. It is entitled, "Medita- 
tions upon our Saviour's Parable of the Prodigal Son." 4to, Part ift, 
1678. Part 2d, 1684. The latter is often lacking, and the complete 
work is rare. It has all the better qualities, without the not infrequent 
tedium, of the earlier Puritans. 



" Mighty to Save! 



23 



foldiers of Caefar ; and that yet wept human tears over human 
fm and with human forrowers. Think that thofe lips had but to 
" fpeak the word " as " in the beginning," and whatever He 
willed mould inftantly have come to pafs ; and that yet there 
fell from them not words of vengeance, or threatening, or 
terror, but of welcome, pardon, promife, peace, bleffmg, love. 
Think, in fine, how " mighty," even Almighty, the Lord Jems 
Chrift was to deftroy a guilty, condemned, and perifhing world ; 
and that yet, as in my text, He proclaims Himfelf "mighty to 
save." Here, if anywhere, we have a theme that, in the 
"breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of it, may well 
bow us in adoring gratitude and wonder, — may well draw from 
us the exclamation of the great apoftle of the Gentiles, " O the 
depth of the riches both of the wifdom and love of God" 
(Rom. xi. 33). 

Regarding, then, the words before us — " / that fpeak in 
righteoufnefs, mighty to save" — as prefenting the Lord Jefus 
Chrift as a mighty Saviour, I wilh in the fequel to fo exhibit 
His attributes and qualifications, as to eftablifh the great and 
bleffed " good news " of my watchword — " Christ for all 

THE WORLD : ALL THE WORLD FOR CHRIST." 

For all practical purpofes, it will fuffice to confider four 
qualifications of the Lord Jefus Chrift : — 

I. HlS KNOWLEDGE OF MAN. 
II. HlS POWER OVER MAN. 

III. HlS SUPPLIES FOR MAN. 

IV. His relations to man. 

I. His Knowledge of Man. 

NOW LEDGE is the ftarting-point of all rightly- 
jlSk, regulated action. Before I may hope to do anything 
fuccefsfully for another— if what I do touch intellect 
or confcience, and be not a mere outward thing — I muft knout 



24 



" Mighty to Saver 



him, or about him. Now, my friends, in relation to knowledge, 
there are fome minds of fuch a peculiarly observant and fubtle 
character as to poffefs a ftartling difcernment of what is 
palling within a fellow-man confronted by them, from the 
expreffion of the face. I do not refer to the more plain and 
unmiftakeabie revelations, fuch as the fmile rippling with 
funny gladnefs over even- feature, telling that the heart is 
glad ; the frown darkening, as a falling fhadow, the forehead — 
the forehead itfelf lined and feamed with thought, as though 
the billows of life's myiterious fea beat there, and there left 
their marks as on the fea-fhore fands; the melting in ruth, the 
kindling in wrath, of the eye : the flufliing to crimfon, the 
whitening to pallor of the cheek ; the filent trickling down of 
the unbidden tear ; the tremulous mobility, in tendernefs or 
fcorn, of the lips. Thefe any, all, may interpret* I refer 
rather to that keen infight into character by the moft fugitive 
glance of the face, which can tell almoft as accurately as though 
the face were a printed book, the thoughts, the feelings, the 
fears, the hopes, that are flitting, fnadow-like, acrofs the 
inner fpirit. But while this is true, while there are awefome 
inftances of this, there is a divine peculiarity in the know- 
ledge of man by the Lord Jefus that marks it off by an un- 
payable boundary from the knowledge of man by his fellow- 
man, be he the moft astute and argute. There is all the 
infiniteness of difference and diftance between prefcience and 
vigilance, between pofitive, abfolute knowledge and tact : in 
fhort, between the divine and human. Take an example. 
You do not know what is in the mind of the peifai at yout 

* The quaint obfervation of Henry Church neverthelefs holds : — " We 
cannot always tell what's o'clock in a man's breaft by the dial of his face. 
Jeremiah xvii. 9, 10 ; 1 Samuel xvi. 7." (Cheap Riches ; or a Pocket- 
Companion made of Five Hundred Proverbial Aphorifms, by Henry and 
Xathanaell Church. 1657. 321110.) 



" Mighty to Save!' 



elbow in the pew. You cannot lay bare the difference between 
your ( falfe ) friend's ( fair) faying and his (bafe ) doing (Ps. lv. 
21). If there be one covered, and curtained, and infcrutable 
domain in the univerfe, it is to be found in that little world 
in the great world — the human heart. How fecurely we fit, 
though holding the dreadeft fecret ! Surrounded, it may be, 
touched on every fide by many, we yet can face and out- 
face them all. We know that none holds the key to our 
heart's chamber fave ourfelves ; that while a few words would 
reveal what mould appal or drive like wolf-driven fheep from 
us, fo long as they remain unfpoken we are fafe from detec- 
tion. How thin the veil that a fpoken word rends : yet how 
thicker than Tabernacle-curtain, fold on fold — unfpoken ! Hif- 
tory is full of examples. The murderer has fat with face of 
calm, and lip without a tremor, and eye with undrooping lid, 
in the very houfe of God ; ay, and his refponfe has mingled 
with the pfalms. Within there might be terrible fear. In 
after-confefiion he may have told — 

8 ' I burned by day and night : 
I feared that fire of fin, 
Its covering feemed fo thin — 
Would (hew to others' fight."* 

Still without, "others" faw not. While this is so, how often 
and often have we examples of hearts bolted, barred, fafl-fhut 
againft infpection, being " naked and open" to Him. Thus we 
read in Mark ii. 6-8, " There were certain of the fcribes fitting 
there, and reafoningin their hearts, Why doth this man thus fpeak 
blafphemies % who can forgive fms but God only % And imme- 
diately^ when Jefus perceived in His fpirit that they fo reafoned 
within themf elves, He faid unto them, Why reafon ye thefe 
things in your hearts ?" You obferve thefe Scribes and Phari- 

$ " Frefh Hearts that Failed Three Thoufand Years Ago ; with other 
Things." Bofton. i860. 



26 



" Mighty to Save!' 



fees had not uttered a fyllable ! But filence was articulate to 
Him. He knew their " reafoning." And He put His fearching 
quellion " immediately." There was no placing together of 
look and attitude by which to conclude againft them. No. 
" Immediately." On another occafion, certain of the priefts 
and higher ones flirred into momentary credence, profeffed 
themfelves to be His difciples. What is the record % They 
were felf-deceived. Was He deceived in them % I read in 
John ii. 22-25, " Now, when He was in Jerufalem at the 
paffover, in the feaft-day, many believed in His name, when 
they faw the miracles which He did. But Jefus did not com- 
mit himfelf unto them, because he knew all men, and 
needed not that any mould teftify of man : for he knew 

WHAT WAS IN MAN." 

Without turning to other inftances, realife, my friends, 
the awful greatnefs of the knowledge herein afcribed to 
Chrift. Think of what is involved in knowing one human 
heart, and that the nearefl of all to us — our own. You re- 
member how, as he found himfelf baffled in the felf-fcrutiny, 
even holy and Spirit-enlightened Jeremiah cried out, " The 
heart is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked : 
who can know it" (Jer. xvii. 9).* Think how even a Paul 

* This text, with its great queftion and great anfwer, will form one 
of my prayer-meeting addreffes intended to be included in the fourth 
volume of this feries of little books. Otherwife I might here have dwelt 
upon the relieving, comforting, reply to the prophet's piteous appeal. 
Be it noted that the deceitfulnefs of the human heart was a wonder 
and a perplexity to Jeremiah : and herein lies a profound differencing of 
human and divine knowledge of that heart. It was no wonder, no per- 
plexity to Jefus. And, indeed, the one fundamental doctrine of regenera- 
tion fhews Chrift' s univerfal knowledge of univerfal humanity. I feel that 
He knows me thoroughly when He fays, " Ye muft be born again." He 
has put His finger on my real need of new life. So that we refpond to and 
realife His knowledge of us. 



" Mighty to Save!' 



27 



ilirank from a decifion upon himfelf, faying, " I judge not 
mine own felf" (1 Cor. iv. 3). Extend the thought. Think 
how it at once ftamps a man as wife above his fellows, to 
fhew any deep reading of another human heart befides his own 
— the husband of his wife, the parent of a child. Reflect how 
idly we /peculate on the internal hiflory of another (a), Still further 
widen the thought. Think of one knowing, not his own heart 
and nature merely — knowing not the hearts and nature only of 
the inner circle of his friends — but of all that ever had lived, 
who were then in the world, and that mould to the lateft age 
and laft man crowd the ftage of exiftence — universal man. 

If language be capable of rendering thought, that is the 
knowledge affirmed in the Word of God concerning Him 
whom it fets forth as the God of the Word. Grafping this 
delineation, we underftand how, under the wonder and the 
glory of its manifeftation in acts, the gathered difciples mould 
have proftrated themfelves in abfolute adoration, and, as if 
" caught up " to the throne, worfhipped Him in words like 
thefe : " Now are we fure that Thou knowest all things, and 
needeft not that any man mould afk Thee : by this we believe 
that Thou cameft forth from God " (John xvi. 30).* And 
earlier, " Lord, to whom fhall we go 1 Thou haft the words 
of eternal life. And we believe a?id are fure that Thou art that 
Chrift, the Son of the living God" (John vi. 68, 69). Nor, my 
friends, was this other than the Lord claimed. When He had 
returned to His throne, where He now fits, He reverted to the 
prayer of Solomon, as before the kneeling tribes he dedicated 
the temple, and faid, " Thou, even Thou only, knowefl the 
hearts of all men" (1 Kings viii. 39), and proclaimed Himself, 

* This paffage — John xvi. 17-19 and 30 — it will be well for the ftudious 
reader to look over in the Greek. The difciples privately fay, ' { What does 
He mean?" Jefus knows what is in their thoughts, and anfwers the un- 
fpoken queftion. Then, in verfe 30, * ' Now are we fure," &c. 



28 



Mighty to Save!' 



" I am He that fearcheth the reins and hearts" (Rev. ii. 23). 
So that, again to recall His name of the Word, what is predi- 
cated of the Word of God, receives its fulleft realifation in 
Him. Of Him it is true abfolutely, if indeed it be not of the 
God of the Word, rather than of the Word of God as a Book 
it is declared, " The Word of God is quick (living) and power- 
ful, and fharper than any two-edged fword, piercing even to the 
dividing afunder of foul and fpirit, and is a difcerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. iv. 12) (b). A thought 
— how fwifter than a weaver's fhuttle ! An intention — how 
fitful ! how fickle ! how freakifh ! Yet "the intents (c) of the 
heart" He knows ! 

You perceive, therefore, my dear friends, that in the fulnefs 
of its awful meaning the Lord Jefus Chrift knows man. He 
perfectly comprehends the nature of man. " He knoweth our 
frame" (Pf. ciii. 14). He knows the fecret fprings of all 
our faculties. He underftands how to unravel the ftrange inter- 
texture of warp and woof in the affections. He can inftantly 
place His Almighty finger upon the pulfe of the will. He 
knows how deep-feated fin is in us. He fees how deep it has 
(truck, how wide it has fpread its ramifications into our confti- 
tution. Every faculty and affection — every thought and emotion 
— every defire and afpiration — every wifli and feeling — as tinged 
and tainted by fin is familiar to Him. He thoroughly knows 
how fin is fo intertwifted and incorporated with our very fpirit 
— how natural it is to us \ though I ufe the word natural under v 
protest : for moft furely it is unnatural — how closely inter- 
tangled are stalk and bloffom and weed — that it has become 
the hardeft thing poffible for us to regard it as a dread fome- 
thing that is in us but not of us, fomething that is tremendoufly 
againft us, fomething that carries perdition with it, fomething 
that demands for its mastery divine interference as direct as 
that in him struck down on the way to Damafcus. And, my 



" Mighty to Save!' 



29 



brethren, the Lord Jefus Chrift — thus piercing through all thofe 
mafks of clofeft fit and moil deceitful guife — all thofe guards 
that would hide us from Him — thus feeing into every dim 
unlighted recefs and " chamber of imagery" — thus knowing 
all that is corrupt and depraved and defiled — fees and knows 
what man, man fallen, Hands in need of in order to his recovery 
and redemption. 

Another characteriftic of the Lord's knowledge of man is, 
that He not only knows us as we are, but all that has gone to 
make us what we have become. The poet has faid — 
" What's DONE we partly' may compute, 
But know not what's refuted." * 

He knows every refinance. He looks back from the fafl to 
the character, and from the character to the training. He 
mistakes not the guft of paffion for a principle, the iffue of 
miftake for that of calculation,! misfortune for fin. He, with 
fharper than "golden hook" of ancient Druid, difcerns between 
the tree-trunk and the twining and entwining parafite. Very, 
very affuring to you and me ought to be this afpect of the know- 
ledge of Chrift. The world is fo wont to judge us merely by 
what we are, merely by a given fact that comes before it, with- 
out inquiring how I or you, or others, have become fo, or what 
preceded the particular act, that it is divinely-fuftaining to 
know that there is One who takes in all that has gone to form 
our character, — all that explains, and it may be palliates, a 
particular fault, even crime. Methinks, my brethren, men 
would have fewer harfh words for the backflider — lefs of fcorn, 
and contumely and feparation for the molt fallen and abandoned 
— did they more frequently afk themfelves the queftion, " What 

* Burns. 

t Henry Church has finely faid, " 'Tis an uncharitable ignorance to 
cenfure that for a love of error which was but an error of love. 1 Samuel 
xvii. 28, 29." 



30 



" Mighty to Save!' 



would I have been, had I breathed the (moral) atmofphere he 
— me — did ?" " What might I not have done, had the tempta- 
tion come with a rum upon me ?" The fmlefs One takes all, 
all into account in His eftimate and verdidt \ and how often 
and often His heart overflows to the falvation of " the very chief 
of fmners." He knows all— yet He loves. " Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and 
let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon 
him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For 
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my 
ways, faith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the 
earth, fo are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts 
than your thoughts" (Ifa. lv. 7-9). 

Further : there is this weird and utterly unearthly charac- 
teriftic of Chrift's knowledge of man — He alone knows what an 
unfallen human foul is. He alone knows the foul of man 
without fin. Every man comes into the world a ruin — " fallen." 
Adam, no doubt, had touching and very folemn memories of 
what he once was • of the infinite faculty that was now ham- 
pered and hindered ; no doubt willfully reverted to the glory 
and the fplendour that had paled and vanifhed. He might 
have left a record of what it was to bear the very " image of 
God." But we have none. There is no fplendid tradition 
floating like a nimbus round the memorial-words of the dif- 
crowned head upon the Fall ; fo that the nimbleft imagination, 
as the holieft experience, can only diftantly approximate the 
reality. But the Lord has the archetype and original before 
His eye, after which to recreate and refafhion the fallen fpirit. 
I have fpoken of man as a ruin. Well ! the Lord Jefus has the 
auguft temple of man's foul ever vifible to Him, as primarily 
built up in holinefs. He has that before Him, after which to 
rear again the fallen fhaft, the mattered architrave, the fplintered 
dome, the difplaced corner-ftone, the violated fhrine, all the 



Mighty to Save!' 



Si 



beautiful adornment of the holy and beautiful houfe. The 
knowledge of Chrift is thus equally of man as fallen and as 
unfallen — as he now is, and as he muft be, ere ever he can be 
placed as a " living ftone" upon the "living ftone." He knows 
the pojftbilities in every man — knows what can be made out of 
him, out of the moft abject. ; ay, and fees the niche in the great 
temple above that is to be filled by him. 

I know not that I need to dwell longer upon this firfl quali- 
fication of our Lord and Saviour — his knowledge of man. I 
think I muft have faid fufficient to have fhewn you, that His 
knowledge of us is infinitely removed beyond all others' know- 
ledge, and that it reaches to every neceffity and phafe of 
universal man. It were, then, fuperfluous carefulnefs, to prefs 
upon you that from this omnifcience of knowledge — of man as 
a fmner and as a faint — the Lord Jefus Chrift, according to 
the meafure of the neceffity of knowledge in order to fave, is 
" mighty" — even Almighty — " to fave." You can readily fee 
how abfolutely neceffary this omnifcience is, in order to the 
qualifying of Chrift as a Saviour, fufficient, all-fufftcient, 
" mighty to fave." I content myfelf, therefore, with indicating 
one afpecT: of His office. Coming as He does with a remedy 
for fin's fad and dread difeafe, it is evidently needful, even 
effential, that He fhould perfectly know its innermoft depths and 
fecrets, the innermoft depths and fecrets of man's nature. And 
fuch is His knowledge. 

Before paffing on, I would wifh, my dear friends, to paufe a 
moment, to fhew " the exceeding great and precious" confola- 
tion contained in this attribute and qualification of the Saviour, 
to the tried, forrowful, and defpondent believer, and to the lowly, 
it may be defpifed, neglected, " hidden one." 

I ftand here as your minifter, having in no common meafure 
your confidence and affection. I blefs God for it : I think 
I know you all as thoroughly as moft minifters know their 



32 



' Mighty to Save." 



flocks. But in common with every fervant of Chrift, much 
more is unknown than is or can be known to me. It is of the 
neceflities of our nature. One foul mud ever be apart from 
ever\- other: one foul muft in largeft degree be outfide of 
every other. It may be that fruitful love is half-fadly con- 
ftrained at times to put Laban's queftion, " Wherefore ftandeft 
thou without T (Gen. xxiv. 31),* as it difcovers that he — me — 
whom it would fain admit to the innermoft receffes of its heart, 
cannot approach there ; but it is inevitable. Not now or here 
can we fully "know as we are known." This comes out very 
tryingly in fpiritual trouble. Who among us really " in Chrift'' 
has not felt what a lonelying thing fpiritual forrow is — how 
inftantly it funders us as by a yawning chafm, from the mod 
congenial fpirit. None of us who has fought out the great 
conteft, under the fhadow of difcovered guilt, of confcious fin, 
of confcious peril, but knows that its fecretsare incommunicable, 
unlhareable. In our ftruggle we retire alone with God ; and it 
were well if even our neareft and deareft invaded not, for the 
time, our fanctuary, as we read in the old, old ftory that is 
ftill repeating itfelf: " So they fat down with him upon the 
ground feven days and feven nights ; and none fpake a word 
unto him ; for they faw that his grief was very great" (Job 
ii. 13). But fuch thoughtfulnefs is not common. Our friends 
will gather around us and expoftulate, and even argue and con- 
tend. They rebuke our " groaning," and flout it, until in our 
anguifh and heart-confcioufnefs that we do not exaggerate, 
there is preffed from us the bitter cry, " My flroke is heavier 
than my groaning" (Job xxiii. 2). Eliphazes, and Elihus, and 
Biidads get about us, take up our stammering, confufed, inad- 
vifed words. They feek, mean, long to comfort. But, my 
brothers and fillers who have gone through that, how have 

* This will be the fubject of another of the addrefles in the fourth of our 
feries. 



" Mighty to Save!' 



33 



we found ourfelves wifhing them all away — how have we fighed 
for folitary vigil — how have we in our diftrefs cried out, " You 
don't know what I feel — don't know what I need — don't 
touch what is my burden — don't come within myriad miles of 
my forrow. It's not there, or there, the wound bleeds, not there 
is the pain, not there the doubt, the dread, the conteft, the 
weaknefs, the impatience, the wilfulnefs, the exigency. If you 
could but know how hollow your words, your confolations, are 
to me — how unreal, how far away your counfels — you would 
leave me, pity and leave me, and let me in flillnefs tranfact 
with my God in the Head of meeting your miferable loquacity 
and din !" Such, I hesitate not to avouch, is the experience of 
the true Chrift-feeking foul in the travail of the " new birth." 
Again he reflects the experience of the fmitten patriarch. He 
mud exclaim, " I have heard many fuch things : miserable 
comforters are ye all. Shall vain words have an end? or 
what emboldeneth thee that thou anfwereft 1 lalfo could fpeak 
as ye do : if your foul were in my foul's Head, I could heap up 
words againft you" (Job xvi. 2-4). " Ye are all phyficians of 
no value. Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace" 
(Job xiii. 4, 5). Even fo. No one fo knows another, lb 
underftands another, as to be able to fpeak then to his case. 
But, my dear friends, I turn your eyes, ay, if tear-filled, to One 
who does know you — does underftand you — does comprehend 
you as you really are — does see every element of your anguilh 
and of your need, and is glorioufly, gracioufly " able to fpeak 
a word to him that is weary." A-weary, tried, crumed, lonely, 
mifunderftood, mifconftrued foul, — go to Jefus. Be affured you 
are no ftranger to Him. Be affured He knows you. Be affured 
His words are not unreal, hollow. Be affured His " confola- 
tions" are " not fmall." To thy " fecret chamber," my brother, 
my filler, in thy forrow and doubt, and haraffment and lone- 
linefs. No prieftly confecration is needed ! No ritual of fet 



34 



" Mighty to Saver 



words is needed ! Out from thy heart fend up thy cry, if thou 
eanft not even to Him utter words. Uncover thy foul's fecrets 
— thy foul's fms — thy foul's forrows — thy foul's temptations — 
thy foul's backflidings and failures — thy foul's broken vows — 
thy foul's falls in face of cleareft light — thy foul's uprifings 
againft the very Spirit of God — everything, anything, — carry 
the promifes to the Promifer, and " wreftle" with Him : and 
though thy deliverance may come, as the morning fometimes 
comes, with a grey rainy dawn, yet come it fhall as He is true 
and faithful. Friendlefs one — unknown and unknowing one — 
far-erring one — prodigal son, daughter, down among the fwine- 
troughs — I tell thee, wherever thou art, thou art not friendlefs, 
thou art not unknown. Oh liften, liften, liften to me, and 
cheer thee ! God loves thee — God's eye is on thee — God in 
Chrift knows thee and all about thee, and He feeks, pleads, 
waits that you may know Him — that you may turn to Him and 
live. " Though ye have lien among the pots, yet fhall ye be as 
the wings of a dove covered with filver, and her feathers with 
yellow gold" (Ps. lxviii. 13).* 

Thus amid the cafte, worldly, and, alas ! churchly — amid the 
ignorance of us by thofe who would comfort us if they could, 
and the neglect of thofe who, by a kindly word kindly fpoken, 
could, if they would — amid abounding mifunderftanding and 
mifconftrudtion of charadter and motive — amid the blundering 
gueffes at what we need when " the hand of the Almighty is 
upon us*' — amid the forry formality of ftereotype-uttered texts 
— amid the ifolation and hiding through poverty or fhame, or 
enforced retirement, the fervant of Chrift comes with the " good 
news," reviving, fuftaining, faving news, that upon the throne 
there is One who, while His omnifcient eye looks lovingly 

* For a peculiarly interefting illuftration and elucidation of this verfe, fee 
"The Bafutos ; or, Twenty-three Years in South Africa," By the Rev. 
E. Cafalis. (1S61. 1 vol.) Page 130. 



" Mighty to Save! 



35 



toward — as now — our dear widowed Queen in her palace, 
difdains not the lowlieft fufferer on the barefl pallet of ftraw. 
I proclaim my teftimony for the Mailer : Christ for all the 

WORLD ALL THE WORLD FOR CHRIST. He KNOWS all He 

claims all — and in His name I claim all for Him. Wherever 
I go — whomfoever I addrefs — when I have a man to fpeak to, 
I am free to preach this very gofpel of the kingdom. I muft 
regard all as rebels — as wilful finners — as choofmg to perifh 
who refufe to " feek Him while He may be found, to call upon 
Him while He is near" (Isa. lv. 6).* Ay, and I have a word 
of folemn warning for Chriftlefs and Hill unheeding, uncon- 
cerned fouls before me, and to all fuch whom my words may 
reach. O firs, my fellow-men, if — as moil furely is the cafe — it 
be fweeteft, tendereft, trueft confolation to the Chrift-feeking 
foul, that the Lord Jefus knows him, knows her — if, in the face 
of all mifunderftanding and maligning, the believer can appeal 
to Him " by honour and difhonour, by evil report and good 
report : as deceivers, and vet true" (2 Cor. vi. 8) — what is 
the bearing of this knowledge upon the ChrifL-forfaking, Chrift- 
rejecling, Chrift-negle cling fmner ] Poor firmer ! I warn you 
He knows you too. Your every tremor of confcience — your 
every fling of moral pain — your flout refolve, to put down thefe 
checks, and ofcillations, and preffure, as of a mailed hand laid 
upon you — your fkulking in the dark to "do evil" — your deft 
contrivances to conceal — your clofe-fitting mafk of profeffion 
with confcious heart-enmity — your thoughts and feelings — your 
defires and lufts — your "idle" profane words — your very felf 
nakeder than to the fkin — I tell you Chrift knows. I tell you 

* " None perish who do their utmost to avoid condemnation. 5 ' 
(David Clarkfon.) Sermons. Folio. 1696. Page 474. My readers will 
find it profitable in many ways to turn to the noble fermon of the prefent 
reference. There are few fuch fermons as Clarkfon' s, and none even by 
him furpafung this one. See Prefatory Note. 



36 



" Mighty to Saver 



He has followed your every outgoing and incoming. I tell you 
His eye has marked every winding of your life's labyrinth. I 
tell you that, feated there in your pew, in this His houfe, He 
is looking at you, looking through you — recording of you — 
nothing forgotten — nothing miftaken — nothing " out of Chrift" 
cancelable. Can you, O man ! O woman ! bring that clofe to 
your conscience, and ftill go on neglecting " the great falva- 
tion?" Not in wrath — not in judgment — not to condemn — 
not to deftroy will He so know you, if you will but call your- 
felves upon His love. He knows you only to pity you — He 
pities you to fpare you — He fpares to help you — He helps to 
fully fave you — He faves to fanctify you — He fanctifies to 
glorify you. But delay, neglect, reject, and you will make, by- 
and-by, the awful difcovery that He who knows you, while He 
is One able, even "mighty" to "fave," is alfo able, mighty to 
deftroy. I fpeak not my own words, but the words of the 
Lord : " There is One lawgiver who is able to fave, and to 
destroy" (James iv. 12). 

Oh my brethren, I cannot end with fo dread a word as de- 
ftroy. I know judgment is His " ftrange work " — I know He 
" delighteth in mercy " — I ring out therefore yet again my 
watchword, Christ for all the world : all the world for 
Christ. " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed 
garments from Bozrah 1 this that is glorious in His apparel, 
travelling in the greatnefs of His ftrength ? I that fpeak in 
righteoufnefs, mighty to save." He is "mighty to fave" from 
His knowledge of man (d). 

I affirm that the Lord Jesus Christ is " mighty to fave," 

II. From His power over man. 

T. O U perceive, my friends, that this is an advance in our 
inquiry. The Lord Jesus, I now observe, has this 
heart and nature of ours that He fo perfectly, fo 



" Mighty to Save!' 



37 



abfolutely knows, and all that in any way affects or influences 
them in His own power. He not only fees and knows all that 
goes to make that enigma of enigmas, " the evil heart of un- 
belief," but He has that "evil heart of unbelief " itfelf altogether 
within His divine control. He can remove all Humbling- 
blocks — He can defeat all oppofition — He can overthrow 
every ftronghold — He can ftep acrofs every barrier-line. As 
on that hufhed Sabbath-eve, He can enter " when the door is 
Ihut." In this the long, luftrous day of His power He can 
glorioufly "make a people willing? All those fences and 
battlements which the natural heart rears up againft its God 
fall before Him like the walls of myflic-beleagured Jericho. How 
is all this ? Becaufe He has the soul of man, of which He has 
omnifcient knowledge, in all its mysterious faculties and gifts, 
in His own hands, to fit and prepare it for receiving Him. He 
is the framer of the fpirit : and consequently can make what 
changes in it He Sovereignly wills. He has the understanding 
in His grasp, and can with infinite eafe render it fufceptive and 
receptive of light ; and He can rekindle under the dome of 
reafon the half-quenched lamp of confcience. He has the 
will, with all its carnality and cleaving to the dull, beneath His 
divine touch. " Hell and destruction are before the Lord ; 
how much more then the hearts of the children of men " (Pro v. 
xv. n). Select the mightieft, grandest, and moSt irreSponfible 
ruler. Is he above the power oS Chrift ? Let one whoSe will, 
whoSe lightest whim, gave law to untold myriads — a deSpot 
abSolute — anSwer. I turn to Prov. xxi. i — " The kings heart 
is in the hand oS the Lord, as the rivers oS water; He 
turneth it whithersoever He will." The myStery oS fin is 
not only unSolded to His eye, but is within His maStery. All 
that through fm blinds and deceives — all that through fin de- 
ludes and degrades — all that through fin governs and crufhes 
the heart oS the Sinner — is in His hands. Whatever oppoSes 

D 



38 



" Mighty to Save! 



the repentance and converfion of a human foul, be it that 
of the " chief of Aimers," and the " chief of finners " at the 
darkening eleventh hour, He can "put out of the way." The 
Lord our God hath laid help upon One who is " mighty," and 
adored be His grace and mercy, " mighty to save." " God 
hath fpoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth 
unto God" (Ps. lxii. n). "Thine, O Lord, is the greatnefs 
and the power" (t Chron. xxix n). "In Thine hands is 
power and might" (ver. 12). "Touching the Almighty, we 
cannot find Him out : He is excellent in power " (Job xxxvii. 
23). " Great is our Lord, and of great power " (Ps. cxlvii. 5). 
I falute you, then, my brethren, with the exultant greeting of 
the apoflle, " Bleffed be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus 
Chrill, Who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten 
us again unto a lively hope, by the refurredtion of Jefus Chrift 
from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for you who are 
kept by the power of God, through faith, unto falvation" 
(1 Pet. 1. 3-s). 

Thus, my friends, from the omnipotence of power over 
man, the Lord Jefus Chrift, according to the neceffity of fuch 
power in order to lave, is " mighty" — even Almighty — " to 
fave." 

You fee, again, how abfolutely this omnipotence of power is 
demanded in a Saviour, the Saviour, — fufficient, all-fufhcient, 
" mighty to fave." Seeking, as He does, from man His heart ; 
feeking, as He does, to enter the foul, and to fet up His throne 
there ; claiming, as He does, to cleanfe and re-erect the defe- 
crated ihrine, — it is needful, even effential, that He mould have 
perfect power to remove all obftacles, to overcome all oppofi- 
tion, to take full and rightful poffeffion. 

Such we inftinclively recognife as qualifications demanded 
in one "mighty to fave." And, my dear friends, how cheering 



" Mighty to Save!' 



39 



a thing it is to have this blelTed gofpel to turn to, wherein are 
written affuring words of this power in ChrifL " Thou haft 
given Him power over all flefh, that He fhould give eternal 
life to as many as Thou hall given Him" (John xvii. 2). 

But here does any one bring up the problem of the free 
choice of man, as in conflict with the omnipotence and fove- 
reignty of God % My anfwer is — I accept the two doctrines ; 
and I believe them to be parallel, not conflicting. I accept them. 
Why % Becaufe I find them both " written " in the Word of 
God. Such is my inevitable attitude to all objectors. I mull 
decline to launch out on the fhorelefs ocean of fpeculation, 
whither every attempt at folution muft lead. God has kepi the 
key of the myjlery in His own hands. But the two doctrines are 
plainly revealed. My own confcioufnefs attefts the freedom 
of my choice, fpite of the hindrances of fin ; attefts that, being 
a believer, I have chofen the Lord, and that yet I never would 
have done fo unlefs He had ruled and overruled my choice by 
His Spirit. My Bible addreffes fuch a faculty of choofmg in 
me, if invitation, promise, warning, appeal, pleading, threaten- 
ing, are not to be explained fo as to be explained away. My 
faith can truft my God and Saviour with His (gracious) 
omnipotence and fovereignty. My hope looks upward in cer- 
tain expectancy of — not reconciliation, for there is no conflict, 
but — explanation that will fhew harmony. I accept the revela- 
tion of the omnipotence and fovereignty of God ; and I am fure 
He can fo ufe thefe, in relation to my foul's falvation, as to 
leave my choice inviolate, — as to employ, without impinging 
upon, my faculty of choice — of acceptance or rejection. It 
were to ungod my God to find difficulty in believing that. 
But I have not the ftiadow of a difficulty — I believe that He 
who created the myftery and marvel of the human foul, — 
that He who has fo dowered it with imperial capacities of 
thought and afpiration, — can and does fo bring it into relation 



40 



"Mighty to Save! 



to His omnipotence and fovereignty of grace, as to fave it in 
perfect harmony with, alike His own and its attributes. What 
is involved in the oppofite I Even this, that given the problem 
of His own omnipotence and fovereignty to be at once abfolute 
and in harmony with the free choice of man, — given the accom- 
plifhment of His will through the contingent yes or no of man, 
the All-wife God is unable to folve that, unable to fecure this. 
From fuch a conclufion, found philofophy, true fcience, and a 
reverent Chriftianity recoil in horror. What then % The be- 
liever accredits the double revelation, and waits, " nothing 
doubting," the key above. 

. . . " The hand of One 

Who took the guilt that bound me long. 

And put it on His only Son, 

Can never do my foul a wrong." * 

But looking deeper into this parallelism of the omnipotence 
and fovereignty of God and the free choice of man, — looking 
at what I am now enforcing, viz., that the Lord Jefus Chrift 
has this heart of ours, and all that in any way affects or influ- 
ences it, in His own power, — does any one, in right earneft 
and as a thing of real foul-anxiety, return upon the wondrous 
words cited from John, " Thou haft given Him power over all 
flefh, that He mould give eternal life to as many as Thou haft 
given him" — I fay, does any one return upon thefe amazing 
words, and afk, Who are the many given to Chrift 1 Then, 
bleffed be God, my anfwer needeth not to be with an " uncer- 
tain found," — needeth not to be hefitant, as though half-revealed 
or unrevealed. My anfwer is — Every one who will accept 
Him on His own gracious terms as a Saviour : Christ for 
all the world — all the world for Christ. Nothing lefs, 
nothing elfe than that have I to claim and proclaim for Him. 

* " Night-Cry to God," in " Bloffoms in the Shade." (1863. Strahan. 
i8mo.) 



" Mighty to Save!' 



41 



I grant that, as a problem of metaphyfics, as a fpeculative 
queftion, taking to " intermeddle" with matters "too high" for 
human ken, this matter may be, nay, has been, darkened into 
very bewilderment and terror. But my anfwer " fhuns profane 
and vain babblings, and oppofitions of fcience, falfely fo called." 
Once more, I am willing to leave "fecret things" with my God 
and Father • I am willing to truft Him with election, predefti- 
nation, foreordination, and all the other myfteries of our faith. 
Reprobation, decreed by God, neither as word nor thing, 
do I find in all the Bible. I know the God I have given 
my foul to ; and when I alfo know that it is the Lord, whom I 
know as holy, righteous, merciful, gracious, loving, Who "calls," 
"purpofes," "foreknows," " predeftinates," "juftifies," "glori- 
fies," — not a dread Being of whom I have been told nothing, 
after whom I have to dimly grope, as in midnight darknefs, 
I can and do, without referve, leave it confidingly to Him to 
" unfeal," in His own good time, the " deep things," and in 
truftful calm, read the mighty words of the great apoftle, every 
"jot and tittle" of which I believe as I believe my own exig- 
ence : " We know that all things work together for good to 
them that love God, to them who are the called according to 
His purpofe. For whom He did foreknow, He alfo did pre- 
deftinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He 
might be the firft-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom 
He did predeftinate, them He alfo called : and whom He 
called, them He alfo justified : and whom he juftified, them 
He alfo glorified" (Rom. viii. 28-30). I know who the " He" 
is in thefe profoundeft of even Bible words. I know it is my 
Father, fays the believer, " who fpared not His own Son, but 
delivered Him up for us all" (ver. 32). I cannot folve the 
humanly infoluble. I cann'ot harmonize predeftination and 
contingency, the dogmas of the Book of God, any more 
than can the higheft philofophy the dogmas of the book of 



42 



"Mighty to Save! 



Nature, — moil real yet all infcrutable facts, of which no account 
is rendered, and that hold their fecret in the face of fubtleft 
interrogation. I cannot folve thefe problems : but I believe 
my God can. " I know not now, but I mall know hereafter" 
(John xiii. 7). 

" Father ! Thy will be done, 
Thy will that doth intend 
My likenefs to Thy Son, 
How can it me offend ? 
Thy will be done. 

6 ' Father ! Thy will be done — 
Thou that didft will to fave 
The world, and for its fake 
Thy Son to judgment gave 
Thy will be done ! 

' ' Father ! Thy will be done — 
Surely a child of duft 
May reft in fuch control, 
And fay, with perfect truft, 

Thy will be done!"* 

Even fo : — For the present, as He has appointed, the child 
of God is willing to " walk by faith, not by fight " — he repofes 
in the revealed and manifested character of the God with 
whom he has to do, and refts affured that whatever He does, by 
the mere fact that He does it, mull accord with His holinefs and 
righteoufnefs, love and mercy, and with His own explicit \ unre- 
ferved, a?id unrefefving commandment laid upon the fervant of 
CJuiJlto " preach the gofpel," to offer a free falvation by Jefus 
Chrift " to every creature." My dear friends, I mull ever hold, 
and afk you to hold, that it is upon this laft we are to take our 
ftand. "The secret things belong unto the Lord our 
God : but those things which are revealed belong unto 
us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the 
* From " Bloffoms in the Shade," as before, pp. 24-26. 



"Mighty to Save!' 



43 



words of the law" (Deut xxix. 29). What then? We turn to 
the Word, and we find invitation without limit, welcome 
without exception, warning univerfal as fin, exp ovulation 
and remonftrance pafiing into entreaty, words into tears, tears 
into the " red rain " of Gethfemane, over perifhing men, who 
" will not come " unto Jefus. We find hiftoric facts, incidents 
in human lives, type, fymbol, parable, miracle, argument, barbed 
with the one great, even impaffioned, averment, that upon every 
one that is loft muft for ever and for ever reft the guilt of self- 
destruction. Such is the revelation of the " purpofe " of the 
Lord God ; upon fuch revelation is bafed the " miniftry of 
reconciliation,'' that calls, befeeches, pleads with man the wide 
world over to be " reconciled " and faved. I might and mould 
tremble to leave predeftination, election, foreordination, in the 
hands of a "ftrange God." I could not but hefitate, if the 
God I adored were a dreadful and inarticulate God, and did He 
predeftinate, elect, foreordain. But as it is, " I know in 
whom I believe and I am confident that His fo tranfcendent 
and wondrous dogmas are my fecurity, not my danger — my 
fafety, not my fnare — my very falvation. 

I look upon this earth in which I live. I find it grafped and 
girded by God's all-embracing laws, as of gravitation, of the ebb 
and flow of the tides, of light, of the proceffion of the feafons — 
all utterly and abfolutely beyond my control. They reach above, 
beneath, around, within me ; I cannot touch them. There they 
are ; unalterable, unfwerving, neceffitated ; in its profoundeft 
fenfe predeftinated. And what is the iffue of obedience to thefe 
laws 1 Happinefs hi the meafure of fuch obedience. Is that no 
revelation of the character of the God of the universe I No 
revelation ! I could fhut my Bible, and from creation, from 
the meaneft flower that blows up to the ftars that hang like 
lamps before the great white throne, find infinite proofs that 
my God is alfo my Father. Exactly so : I cannot tell how 



44 



" Mighty to Save!' 



free will, choice, contingency, accord with predeftination, elec- 
tion, foreordination. I do not feel that I am called upon to 
do so. But as we have feen, our own confcioufnefs attefls the 
former, while the Word of God recognifes and addreffes them, 
recognifes and addreffes man as free to think, feel, will, choofe, 
reject. Equally does the Word of God affirm the latter. I 
therefore accept them alfo, and can defer knowing how the 
Ail-wise harmonifes them until He is pleafed to reveal them to 
me. Nay more, I have deepeft belief that even as the phyfical 
world is grafped and girded by its great laws, fo muft the other 
and grander world of mind have underneath it, like the granite 
bafe of the " everlafling hills," above it, like the dome of the 
Iky, kindred laws. These laws I recognise and accept in 

PREDESTINATION, ELECTION, FOREORDINATION. Remove the 

law of gravitation, and many a fair ftar " flaming on the forehead 
of the fky," yea, the big fun and the whole ftupendous univerfe, 
mould rufh to ruin, and wander off from the throne of God. 
Similarly I believe, remove the law of predeftination, and you 
snap the many-linked chain that binds man to God. And juft 
as I have the power to violate God's great laws, to my deftruc- 
tion ; so may I His law in the plan of redemption, equally to my 
deftruction. Obey His laws phyfical, and until the appointed 
hour I live. Obey His laws fpiritual \ accept " eternal life " 
according to His predeftinated way, even in and from God the 
Son, as offered in the gofpel ; and I am faved. Such is my 
meffage. I am not to keep my Father at arm's length ; I am 
not to doubt, fufpecl Him ; doubt, fufpect the reality of the 
charge given me as a fmner — given me as His fervant — 
becaufe of any fpeculations and prefently infoluble problems of 
harmony as between divine election and human choice. He 
has wifdom to reconcile all the complexities and apparent 
irreconcileableneffes ; and the believer trufts Him. 

Thus, taking a ftand upon the revealed and manifested 



"Mighty to Save!' 



45 



character of God ) thus leaving in His hands — Oh they are 
the hands that were pierced by the nails ! — the vast " secret 
things/' I lay hold of the miffion and commiffion given me 
as a minifter of the gofpel, " to preach the gofpel to every 
creature," to be an ambaffador of the crofs wherever I find a 
man. Therefore is it that, unfalteringly, unhefitatingly, I give 
my anfwer to the queftion, " Who are the many given to ChriftJ" 
which is even this, Every one who will accept Christ on 
His own gracious terms. I hold up the words as a filver lamp, 
to ftream light over the glorious delineation of the Lord Jefus 
as "mighty to fave." I ring out again and yet again on the 
ground of it my watchword and demand in His name, Christ 

FOR ALL THE WORLD ' ALL THE WORLD FOR CHRIST. 

Why, my dear friends, mould we act otherwife ? I can drink 
of the clear-cold fpring, and be refrelhed, though I may not 
hope to pierce the awful foundation of granite from whence it 
comes gufhing up. I can take of the grain of the tawny 
fheaves, or of the laden grapes, though I cannot tell how the 
unconfcious root and fibres seledt, eledt — never miftaking — 
out of a common foil that which fhall produce their fpecific 
fruit. I can rejoice in the Ihining fun, and fan my cheek with 
the breathing wind, though I am ignorant as an infant of the 
great palace of light, and " know not whence the wind cometh, 
nor whither it goeth." Even fo ; I (loop my parched lip to the 
" living water," and I rise revived ; and I know nor man nor 
woman who ever fought to do fo and was hindered. I am 
content with that. I will know the deep foundation whence it 
comes in due time. I take the "bread of life," I drink of the 
facramental cup ; and the peace within my heart affures me I 
am a welcome guest ; and again I know nor man nor woman 
who ever has truthfully fought fo to "remember" Chrift, and 
been hindered or unbleffed. I am content with that. I will 
know one day how it came about that with a univerfal offer and 



4 6 



"Mighty to Saver 



univerfal provifion the loft came not. I am fure the guilt and 
blame will be their own, not God's. I walk in the light of the 
Sun of righteoufnefs. I find my heart opened to the breath- 
ing, quickening, fandtifying Spirit ; and once more, I know nor 
man nor woman who ever went forth beneath the healing 
beams, or waited on the ufe of means for the Spirit, and went 
unvifited. I am content with that. I will know up yonder 
how others waited not ; and how contrariwife all the redeemed 
were moved, inclined, enabled ; how in Sovereign mercy the 
faved were vilited of the Spirit and "made willing." I can 
confide all — all — all to my God, the God and Father of my 
Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. 

Such, brethren, is the way of dealing with the great dogmas 
of predeftination, and election, and foreordination, which I am 
anxious you mould follow. We hold not now the key to them. 
Therefore, fimply accepting them, and unrefervedly confiding 
in God, I turn your gaze from them to what is " clearly 
revealed ;" and nothing is fo revealed if this be not, that God 
has ill-will to no human being in the univerfe who will turn to 
Him in His Son, while God the Holy Spirit, in magnanimous 
patience, waits to give that faith which turns the foul to Him. 
Yet again therefore I lift up my watchword, Christ for all the 
world j all the world for Christ. May it be given to you 
and me increafmgly to tranfacl with Chrift Himfelf as the 
unfeen but all-feeing; to rejoice in His knowledge abfolute to 
underftand, and power uncontrollable to execute whatever we 
need. I pray God that He may be pleafed to grant unto us 
a verification of the prayer of Paul ; Eph. i. 17-19, " That the 
God of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the Father of glory, may give 
unto you the fpirit of wifdom and revelation for the acknow- 
ledgment of Him : the eyes of your underftanding being 
enlightened ; that ye may know what is the hope of His call- 
ing, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the 



" Mighty to Save!' 



47 



faints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power 
to us-ward who believe."* Oh ! with fuch faving power mani- 
fefted toward and in ourfelves, may we not well blulh that ever 
for a moment we mould have defp aired either of our own foul's 
cafe, or of any other human being ftill alive ! (e) 

And now, my friends, as I obferved with reference to the 
omniscience of the knowledge of Chrift, that it was a delightful 
and fuftaining thought, that in coming to Jefus as our Saviour 
we come to One to whom we are no ftrangers, to One who 
knows us, fo I would make the fame remark in relation to the 

OMNIPOTENCE OF HlS POWER. 

My fellow-believers, amid all your exercifes of fpirit, your 
hefitations, your dreads, your fainting and failing, even grievous 
falling, remember who is on your fide, and on whofe fide you 
are, through grace. Let the great adverfary accufe — send him 
to Chrift. Let the law condemn — plead the fhed blood. Let 
confcience alarm — turn its eye to the crofs. Let obftacles high 
as heaven, deep as hell, barriers maffive as the gates of the 
pit, block and bar the way to the mercy-feat — caft yourfelves 
on the infinite power of Chrift. Realise — and take the peace, 
the joy, the confolation of it — that nothing, abfolutely nothing, 
can interpofe between the omnipotence of the Lord Jefus 
Chrift and the falvation of whosoever cometh unto Him. 

Oh my brethren, if I and you would but confront all that 
feeks to come between us and falvation by Chrift, we fhould find 

* I fhould have liked to have worked out this other thought concerning 
the exercife of the power of Chrift as different from ours. I may take a 
child, and by my power ftrike him, break his very back, and ftill gain not 
my end. Chrift "makes" the child "willing" Chrift's power is not force 
merely. Again, I may place a child on his little ftool befide me — I may 
impart knowledge, I may fully inform him on all that concerns his foul ; 
yet make no change. But when Chrift imparts knowledge, it is operative. 
My readers may carry this out. 



4 8 



" Mighty to Save!' 



out that what in our anguifh we take to be threatening, barring, 
and debarring mountain-ranges, carrying florms and lightnings 
in their peaks, are but mift-clouds, that need only to be Ihone 
upon by Him who is "mighty to save" to melt away in filver- 
fheening rain. If only we would fetch all our difficulties and 
oppofitions to Him, to be dealt with by His power, we mould 
find His promife glorioufly true, " Him that cometh to me I 
will in no wise cast out" (John vi. 37). 

The accufer of the brethren knows that. He has fent out 
into the world; has interwoven into the creeds of churches 
many very awful lies ; and has found interpreters within the 
houfe of God. He has gotten men to defignate God the Holy 
Spirit as an influence, not a Perfon ; a thing, not fupreme God. 
He has perfuaded others that the man Chrift Jefus is merely man 
the Christ ; a man of the loftieft and beautifuleft type, but no 
more. He has fought to tear out of the Bible its moft " healing 
leaves " as unhiftoric and unreal. He has flung perplexity and 
mifleading mirage of ritualifm over numerous of the doctrines 
of the gofpel. He has found advocates for no creeds, no con- 
feffions, who would fneer away the good name of their framers, 

"Those whom, to our grateful knowledge, 
The ages reverently hand down — 
Whofe talks they wrought were tafks Titanic ; 
With ftrength proportioned to their need ; 
With mighty fweep of line and plummet 
Laying the bafis of our creed." * 

All that, he and his have done, and worfe ; but he never has 
adventured this fo hideous lie, that down among the tofling, 
quenchlefs fires he has one folitary foul that had fled to 
Jesus. No. He has not dared a mendacity fo tremendous. 
His grand endeavour is to keep back from the fhed blood — to 
hinder from going to Chrift. Once at the crofs — once within 
* " Paffion-Flowers," by Mrs Julia Howe. 0EO2, p. 125 (3d Ed., 1854). 



< Mighty to Saver 



49 



" the door" — once clafped by the wounded hands — once hidden 
in the " clefts of the rocks " — he knows well no power of earth 
or hell can reach the efcaped fmner. Hence my watchword of 
to-day, my good news, of Christ for all the world ; all 
the world for Christ. " Who is this that cometh from 
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious 
in His apparel, travelling in the greatnefs of his ftrength % I 
that fpeak in righteoufnefs, mighty to save." He is " mighty 
to save," from His power over man (/) (g). 

At this point I would look back with you upon our inquiry 
thus far \ and then we shall be better able to profecute it. 

We have feen that the Lord Jefus is omniscient in know- 
ledge of man. But it had been poffible to have had this 
knowledge without power. We have feen that he is omni- 
potent in power over man, and over all that in any way 
affedts or influences him. But it had been poffible to have 
poffeffed power without knowledge. Combining the two — 
knowledge with power — obferve man might have been none 
the better. Let us illuftrate thefe three things : — 

i. // is poffible io have knowledge without power. Few of us 
live long, my friends, without experience of this. How, over 
and over, have we fulleft knowledge of what is needed, while, 
at the fame time, we cannot help. I take a fmgle cafe. I lead 
you to the dying chamber of your loved and loving. I take 
I my ftand with you there, befide the death-bed where Jhe lies — 

"Beauteous 

As confumption juft before (he's chriftened death. "* 

You know — you fee life's lamp is flickering in its focket, as 
a candle before the flaring wind; you know — you fee life's 
fountain is ebbing out, drop by drop ; you know — you fee the 
dear, dear face is changing. (How it does change!) Amid the 
difficult and laboured breathing, you draw near with fofteft 
* T. Lovell Beddoes. (Poems I. 1 1 8.) 



5o 



" Mighty to Save!' 



foot-fall, and gently clafp the thin, pallid, blue-veined hand — 
wipe the damp forehead — filently interrogate the fading eye. 
Alas ! alas ! the " right hand" has " forgotten its cunning," and 
cannot return the faint eft anfwering preffure — the eye, fo quick 
and loving once, is dim to even " the old familiar faces" — 

6 1 We fadly watch the clofe of all 
Life balanced on a breath ; 
We fee upon the features fall 
The awful shade of death."* 

The old tragic ftory is being repeated : " the filver cord is 
loofmg, the golden bowl breaking, the pitcher breaking at the 
fountain, the wheel breaking at the ciftern." You know — you 
fee all that \ and yet you can only gaze, with wet eyes, your 
heart in your throat — helplefs to help. You know that mother, 
fifter, " little one," is in the dark valley, and you would fain 
leave not alone \ but you cannot take fo much as one lingering, 
hindering ftep. Human power fails here. Who among us has 
not felt his infinite weaknefs in fuch extremity % I know you 
would have lpid yourfelves gladly down — filled their coffin — 
bereaved ones, to have spared them. But no ! " There is no 
man that hath power over the fpirit ; neither hath he power in 
the day of death : and there is no difcharge" (Eccles. viii. 8). 
" None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give 
to God a ranfom for him, that he fhould ftill live for ever, and 
not fee corruption" (Ps. xlix. 7). And fowith all our knowledge 
we fee our little one lie down like a "wee" wearied lamb on 
Jordan's banks — to die ; fee mother, brother, fifter reaved 
away \ fee tender ties fundered \ fee grey heads vacating the 
" old arm-chair;" mifs the cooing of pleafant voices, and the 
pattering bicker of tiny feet. It is poffible to have k?iowledge 
without power. 

* The Vifion of Prophecy, and other Poems. By James D. Burns, M.A. 
2d ed, 1858. P. 223. 



" Mighty to Save." 



2. Ii is poffible to have power without knowledge. Half the 
world's woes — at leaft, I am fare, half the woes of the children 
of God, within the church — are traceable to ignorance of 
them by the other half. Oh, it is becaufe the bleeding hearts — 
the bowed-down heads — the weary watchers — the pinched and 
pained ones — the tempted, forfaken, folitary, overwhelmed 
ones are not known, that fo many go unhelped. I explain ; 
far be it from me to extenuate. I explain ; and I know that it 
brought terrible accufation upon the fhepherds of Ifrael. that 
they did not "search out'' the "flieep" of the Shepherd's 
"flock" (Ezek. xxxiv. 8, n). I explain : I do not vindicate : 
I know that " want of thought" breaks perhaps as many hearts, 
as " want of heart? I explain, not defend : I know that " they 
considered not'' are very awful words in the mouth of God. 
Still I Hate a fact which every-day experience confirms. The 
poet writes out his " Song of the Shirt,'" or a noble woman fends 
out a pleading cry, " Halle to the Refcue,'" and the nation's 
heart is touched. Thoufands and tens of thoufands who never 
had dreamed, fufpected fuch woes, refpond with willing hands, 
and loving hearts, and fifterly words ; and fanlight is carried 
into many an, erewhile, deep-Iliad owed home, and relief to 
hearts well-nigh broken (h). Oh, guilt lies on the church of 
Chrift, in its miniflers and memberfhip, in letting fo much 
power, waiting to be ufed, go unufed, wafte itfelf outfide 
the church ! Think you, my friends, that with the power 
within the church of Chrift to help, blefs, eafe, fo much 
mifery, anguifh, outward and inward, phyfical and fpiritual, ought 
to exift I Be it ours, my friends, within our feveral fpheres, 
wider and narrower, to " fearch out," to know the help needed, 
that the fearful anomaly of power unufed, unfought, may not ciy 
to heaven. It is poffible to have power without knowledge (i). 

3. It is poffible to have both knowledge and power in vain. I 
know not that I can better, and I feel that I cannot more 



52 



" Mighty to Saver 



touchingly, illuftrate this, than by a fa6l concerning that good 
and true foldier of Jesus Chrift, Hedley Vicars. A friend of 
his told lately to an auditory in London, that his wound was 
not a mortal one. It was one well known, and over which the 
furgeon had perfect power. And yet "he died." Why 1 ? 
Becaufe, in the hurry and tumult of that terrible morning, 
on the grey heights of the Crimea, the regiment of Hedley 
Vicars was carried far from the tents that held the fup- 
plies. There was no bandage with which to tie the bleeding 
artery; and, ere they reached the ftore-tents, the Chriftian 
foldier was no more. He bled to death. If, said his friend, 
with the pathos of true affection, " If there had been a bandage 
— if the tents of fupplies had been half-a-mile nearer, Hedley 
Vicars might have been alive to-day." It needeth not, my 
friends, that I " adorn this tale" of war. I leave it alone in its 
beautiful fimplicity. You have anticipated its application. 
Knowledge of the wound was of no avail : power over the 
wound was of no avail. Knowledge and power, in the abfence 
of the bandage, in the diftance from the fupplies, were of no 
avail. So that you perceive it holds that it is poffible to have 
both knowledge and power in vain. 

I am thus brought to confider the next qualification of the 
Lord Jefus Chrift as " mighty to fave." He has omnifcience 
in knowledge of man ; He has omnipotence in power over man, 
and over all that in any way affects or influences him. I now 
affirm that the Lord Jefus is " mighty to fave." 

III. From His supplies for man. 
HAD occafion, in a former difcourfe, my dear friends, 
to fhew you, with fulnefs of illuftration and enforce- 
ment, the infinite provision in Chrift for every need 
of man.* I will therefore be more brief now. And yet fo in- 
* From i John iii. 8, which may be given in our third volume. 




" Mighty to Save!' 



53 



exhauflible are His fupplies, fo perfect is their adaptation to all 
our neceffities before converfion, in converfion, after converfion, 
that I may find myfelf extending, though not repeating. 

What then are the great needs of man in relation to the 
Lord Jefus Chrift % I think, regarding them broadly and 
generally, they may be damned under outward and inward. 

(i.) Outward : When a finner is awakened to a fenfe of his 
condition as before God, he has an awful difcovery of the law 
of his God " condemning " him. " The handwriting of condem- 
nation " flafhes out as of old did the myftic handwriting on the 
palace-wall of Babylon : and nor feer nor aftrologer, nor any, can 
fhut it out. What fays the Lord Jefus ? Has He no fupply 
to Hill the tremors of confcience as it flares at that fo terrible 
fentence and penalty ? My fellow-man, behold the " hand- 
writing of condemnation" a torn and tattered thing by the nails 
of the crofs. Liften : " You, being dead in your fins and the 
uncircumcifion of your flefh, hath He qtiickened together with 
Chrift, having forgiven yo\±\= given for] all trefpaffes \ blotting 
out the ha?idwriti?ig of ordinances that was againft us, which 
was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to 
His crofs" (Col. ii. 13, 14). Cheer thee then, brother, filler, 
whoever you be ; turn eye of faith, heart of love, hand of 
hope, to the uplifted crofs. Let the transfiguring and tranf- 
forming vifion in unto your foul : and, even as you gaze there 
will come peace. What ! You are a miferable, perifhing 
finner ! Well ! The crofs is for you, and you are for the 
crofs. Chrift is for you, and you are for Chrift. " The hand- 
writing " is nailed for you. Nay, look not down upon thyfelf — 
look away — look up — up — up. You know how ferpent-bitten 
Ifrael were charged. "Whofoever" turned dimmeft, fainteft, 
dyingeft eye to the " brazen ferpent " lived. They were 
" bitten " — they were poifon-ftung — they were bleeding to 
death — it was true their very heart' s-blood was welling out on 



54 



Mighty to Save!" 



the fands. But ftill the command was, " Look and live." Had 
they kept looking down at their out-flowing blood, their out- 
paffing life, they had affuredly died. And fo, fmner ! man ! 
woman ! keep gazing upon yourfelf — your guilt— your fin — 
your defilement, and you will inevitably perifli. The " con- 
demnation " of the " handwriting " will come upon you. But 
why fo look down when the cry is for very life, " Look up !" — 
" Handwriting of condemnation " ! Tufh ! It is " nailed" to the 
crofs ! There it is as impotent to condemn you as was the 
impaled, fanglefs, poifonlefs, dead ferpent of brafs to fling. 
Cheer thee, then, cheer thee. " There is therefore now 7 no 
condemnation to them which are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not 
after the flefh but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of 
life in Chrift Jefus hath made us free from the law of fin and 
death" (Rom. viii. i) (/). 

(2.) Inward : After a fmner has fled for " refuge" to "lay 
hold of the hope" fet before him in the gofpel, even to the 
very clofe of his pilgrimage, he is made to groan under the 
fad revelation within him of remaining fin. To the end we are 
finners. In glory we fhall Hill be "finners faved." Such has 
been the experience of the children of God in all ages. Abra- 
ham faw himfelf, after long years of holy walking with his 
covenant-God, to be only " duft," ay, lefs than dull, the very 
refufe of duft, "afh.es" (Gen. xviii. 27). Of the meek and 
"faithful" Mofes, it "is written" he "fpake unadvifedly with 
his lips " (Ps. cvi. 33). Many and many is the dolorous cry of 
penitence of the " man according to God's own heart." It is 
no heart-hardened reprobate, but a man of whom the verdict 
of the Lord was, after fweeping with omnifcient eye over all 
the myriads of mankind — "There is not one like him in all 
the earth," whopiteoufly abafes himfelf and exclaims, " I abhor 
myfelf, and repent in duft and afhes." Daniel, the moft ftain- 
lefs and "perfect" of all the worthies of the Bible, excludes 



" Mighty to Save!' 



55 



not himfelf in his " confeffions before the Lord." We read : " I 
was fpeaking, and praying, and confeffing my fins and the fin of 
my people" (Dan. ix. 20). And think of that cry of anguiih, 
liker the wail of a loft fpirit from the pit than a human cry from 
earth. "O wretched man that I am ! who mail deliver me from 
this body of death V 9 * (Rom. vii. 24). It came from the white- 
haired Paul when, out of heaven, there was not a purer, holier 
faint below. It is no "ftrange thing," therefore, that has hap- 
pened to us when, bowing at the all-revealing throne of light, 
confronting ourfelves with the immaculate ftandard, we find fin 
{till abiding within us, mingling its monotone of jar in the 
pfalm of our life — flinging its dark fhadow acrofs our hope — 
fermenting with foetid leaven in the u grace" given us — balefully 
" growing up " in lulls and defires of the earth earthly, of the 
devil devilifh. But are we to defpair and go away from Chrift 
becaufe of remaining indwelling fin? Has Chrift no fupply 
for this fo awful need 1 My fellow-man, behold ! in the place 
of the " handwriting of condemnation " — in the ftead of the 
blurred legend of the death-fentence, another : " The blood 
of Jesus Christ, the Sox of God, cleaxseth us from 
all six " (1 John 1. 7). Cheer thee, then, brother, fifter. 
again, whoever you be. Refill the accufer with thefe glorious 
words ! He will make fin, your fin, to be nothing before you do 
it ; and when you have done it, how he dilates and exaggerates 
it, " if it were pofhble," to drive you to defpair ! Fling his lie 
in his teeth : acknowledge your fin, but refufe to accredit his 
Chrift-dilhonouring whifper that you have finned away the 
Spirit — finned beyond God's mercy. To the blood, to the "fried 
blood," whoever you be. There you will find a prefent Saviour. 

* This queftion, with its relieving anfwer in ver. 25, will form the text 
of one of the addreffes in my fourth volume. As I quote it above, though 
perhaps it ought never to be quoted in disjunction from ver. 25, it might 
be a loft foul's wail : never, never in its fource, nor in its anfwer. 



50 "Mighty to Save. 



Liilen once more : Come now [not an inftant's delay ! ], and 
let us reafon [God in Chrifi and thee, my brother, my 
filler : not confeience and thee, not the devil and thee, elfe you 
will be reafoned ro abfolute hopeleiTnefs], let us reafon 
together [mind that ! not apart— not alone — not away from 
God, but like a child at His knee], faith the Lord : Though 
your tins be as fcarlet [weigh that word " fcarlet," murder- 
ftains .'], they mall be as white as fnow : though they be [mark ! 
God willies you to come in your true character, as a firmer. 
You are a fmner : but though you be a fmner there is cleanfmg] 
red like crimfon they fliaU be as wool." [ Without, white as 
fnow. But then, let fnow melt in the hand, and it is found to 
be grey, blackifli. Therefore, within white alfo, white as wool.] 
Even so, my dear friends, in all our difcoveries of yet remaining 
fin, we muft place ourfelves in realihng prayer beneath the 
fprinkling, flowing, overflowing blood. What ! Thou findeft 
it fo every day ! Well ! Every day turn to the " Ihed blood." 
You find "remaining fm n every day. Did you not expect 
that I Think a moment. The Lord has made provifion for 
the fad difcovery. He who has told us " daily " to afk our 
••daily bread," immediately adds as another daily petition, 
•' Forgive us our fins." Be it yours, therefore, my brethren, 
whether in outward or inward need, to turn for fupply unto 
the Lord Jefus. In Him is infinite fulness. 

Having thus glanced at the more broad and general afpects 
of the fupply in the Lord Jefus for all our needs, I would now 
look at details. 

I obferve, then, that a fmner needs — i. Light ; 2. Revelation 
of God : 3. Of the heart of God : 4. Life ; 5. The Holy 

Spirit. 

1. Light. When the great apoftle of the Gentiles defcribes 
the "progrefs" of the "pilgrim" in his Second Epiftle to the 
Corinthians, he Harts with this ; and indeed the mod curfory 



"Mighty to Save" 



reader muft obferve that Chrift, as " Light," is a favourite figure 
with Paul. He feems ever to recall " the light above the bright- 
nefs of the fun" (Acts xxvi. 13). " God, who commanded the 
light to mine out of darknefs, hath mined in our hearts, to give 
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
Jefus Chrift" (2 Cor. iv. 6). That little world, the human 
heart, like the vafter globe we inhabit, when it is created (anew; 
emerges out of darknefs. Now who fo fitted as Jefus to fupply 
this light ? " I am the Light of the world," were His amazing 
words ; " he that followeth Me fhall not walk in darknefs, but 
fhall have the light of life" (John viii. 12). He was the Day- 
liar, the " bright and morning Star" of a darkened world. He 
is the Sun of righteoufnefs. 

2. Revelation of God. Light is a metaphorical term. It 
fymbolifes difcoveries made to the foul. It expreffes the im- 
parting of knowledge, revelation, and beftowment of purity , of 
favour, of joy, of glory, and thefe in relation to God. We need 
to know God, we need to be " like God." Now again, who fo 
fitted as the Lord Jefus to give us knowledge, and fpecially 
knowledge of our God \ He could and did fay, " As the Father 
knoweth me, even fo know I the Father" (John x. 13). And 
you remember that cry wrung from His heart, as He thought 
of the mifconftrudtions and ignorance of His Father, " O right- 
eous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known 
Thee" (John xvii. 25). Take any attribute, any grace of God. 
and Chrift is the Revealer of it. 

11 Thy thoughts are love, and Jefus is 
The living voice they find ; 

His love LIGHTS UP THE VAST ABYSS 

Of the eternal mind."* 

3. Revelation of the heart of God. I could conceive no more 



* Tames D. Bums, as before, p. 275, 



58 



"Mighty to Saver 



terrible thing for a poor firmer, than to have God difcovered to 
him as infinitely holy, pure, juft, righteous — as a revelation of 
character merely. For example, what a tremendous text were 
ours without the laft two words. Read — " Who is this that- 
cometh from pdom, with dyed garments from Bozrah 1 this 
that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatnefs of his 

itrength % I that fpeak in righteoufnefs, mighty ." How 

fhould we cower and tremble before fo dread a Being ; how 
fhould the very knowledge of His attributes appal us. A 
fmner, therefore, needs to know what His feeling towards 
finful creatures fuch as himself is. And bleffed, bleffed be 
God, the grace of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, 
the longfurTering patience of God, the yearning pity of God, 
have been revealed. By whom % By Jefus. " The grace 
of God, that bringeth falvation, hath appeared to all men" 
(Tit. ii. n). Who fo fitted as Jefus to "reveal" that grace] 
Lying in the bofom of His Father from all eternity, He has 
felt the throbbings of His heart of love toward a perifhing 
world. 

; 4, Life. If anything be plain in the word of God it is this, 
that to converfion every one of us needs life. We are all dead 
— twice dead. Unconverted man ! Chriftlefs woman ! I tell 
you, you are dead. To the eye of God, to the pitying eye of 
angels, to the dreadful exultation of devils, your foul lies dead, 
putrid in your body : your body a fair coffin for your dead foul. 
Oh if God were to hurry you to your burial, as we muft our beft- 
beloved dead to the grave, how long fince had you been gone ! 
And yet a dead foul fends up an effluvium toward God, com- 
pared with which that of a plague-flricken corpfe is incenfe. 
My fellow-man, be awakened ! be alarmed ! Dead ! dead ! 
dead ! You ftand in awful need of life. And who fo fitted as 
Jefus to fupply this life % What " is written ?" " As the Father 
hath life in Himfelf,. fo hath He given the Son life in Himfelf" 



" Mighty to Save!' 



59 



(John v. 26). And you remember how Peter hurled on the 
Pentecoftal multitude the thrilling accufation, " Ye killed the 
Prince of life" And yet again, men alk, " What is eternal 
life V and God points to His Son, and anfwers, " There is the 
eternal life manifefted" (Cf. 1 John i. 3). 

5. The Holy Spirit. I need not to prove this need of man. 
Neither do I need to prove that He is the "gift" of Chrift. 
Without the Spirit, all is vain.* 

I have thus indicated in detail a few of thofe things that 
man requires, and all of which, in infinite and abfolute 
poffeffion, the Lord Jefus holds. Mark the expreffion — in 
infinite and abfolute poffeffion. The faints on earth and in 
glory have fulnefs of all thefe bleffings ; afcending higher, angel 
and archangel have inexpreffible fulnefs of wifdom, ftrength, 
holinefs. But they have all, as derived from Chrift. " That 
which He giveth them, they gather." They cannot beflow, 
cannot impart it. Very different, ftupendoufly different, is it 
with Jefus. All is His own, to communicate to whomfoever 
and as foever he pleafeth. Light, wifdom, grace, life, the Holy 
Spirit, — to fhadow out the diftinction by a figure, — fill the bofom 
of Jefus, as the ocean fills its majeftic bed — felf-containing, felf- 
contained. They fill all creatures, the loftieft, as the water 
fills the rivers. River-like, all muft flow back to the eternal 
Source. 

Thus from His supplies for man the Lord Jefus Chrift 
is infinitely qualified to be "mighty to fave." Oh, once 
more, how delightful to know that before one finner need go 
unfupplied, the refources of God muft be exhaufted ! What a 
glorious meffage that is for the fervant of Chrift to prefs upon 
his fellow-men ! How does it warrant my watchword — Christ 

FOR ALL THE WORLD ; ALL THE WORLD FOR CHRIST ! Oh why, 

why, why, men and brethren, will you turn to broken cifterns 
* See footnote, page 52. 



6o 



" Mighty to Saver 



which can hold no water, while the " Fountain" is opened, freely 
opened to you % Why furround yourfelves with " fparks of 
your own kindling/' that will go out black in your foreft need, 
when the very Light of heaven is ftreaming in blinding radiance 
around you 1 Why drudge and moil in the fervice of the 
" world, the flelh, and the devil," when the Lord Jefus waiteth 
to give you the welcome of fons and daughters I Up from thy 
hulks ! up from thy grovelling ! up from the dull ! " Awake, 
arife ! and Chrift mail give thee light." 

My dear friends, the fpiritual fupplies of the Lord Jefus, as 
they are poffeffed by Him abfolutely, fo they are bellowed 
abfolutely. For things concerning this life, God has entered 
into no abfolute covenant. He imparts the wondrous dower of 
life, but He recalls it. All die. He imparts health ; but how 
often He withdraws it. How often is he " whom He loveth 
ftck !" He imparts riches ; but they take wings, and fly away. 
He imparts honours ; but they are " laid in the duft." All 
thefe He may or may not continue, — may take from us, or us 
from them. But Oh, my dear friends, hear me ! For everything 
touching the falvation of the foul, your foul and mine, God in 
Chrift has given an abfolute promife, has entered into an in- 
violable covenant. Chrift is a gift. Salvation is a gift. Even 
among men, a gift is never withdrawn, never recalled, never 
cancelled. Much lefs with God. " Thanks," then, " be to 
God for His unfpeakable gift" (2 Cor. ix. 15). 

And now, my brethren beloved, be entreated to let no fpe- 
cialty of your individual experience fhut out the perfonal con- 
folation of my melfage, — the perfonal application to you of the 
6 ( good news" now brought nigh to you. Oh the perverfe in- 
genuity, the morbid modefty, the falfe-witnefs againft God-given 
grace, that "refufes to be comforted !" For your very foul's 
fake, "take heed." Is any one faying, as I fpeak, "Ah, but I 
am a great fmner "I am a poor finner "I am an old 



6i 



iinner;" "I am a backfliding fmner;'' "I am a peculiar firmer'"? 
Have I put into words the palling thought of any one of you ? 
Then, as you would go away cheered, not "caft down," — free, 
not bound, — hope-filled, not defpairing, — believe me, I have a 
meffage to every one of you — a meffage of blefling, whoever you 
be. Great fmner ! I have from my Lord a great falvation to offer 
you. Poor fmner ! I have a rich and free falvation to prefs 
upon you; ay, and remember the word of the Lord, " To this 
man will I look, even to him that is poor." Oh will you not 
take the joy of that, and fay, " / am poor, yet the Lord thinketh 
upon me"? (Ps. xL 17). Old fmner I the falvation I am com- 
manded to proclaim is an old, old, yea, an " everlafling" falva- 
tion for you. Backfliding fmner ! I tell you, the tendereft words 
in all the Bible are to " heal" the backflider. 

" O foul, O foul, rejoice, 

Thou art God's child, indeed, for all thy finning, 
A trembling child, yet His, and worth the winning 
With gentle eyes and voice."* 

Peculiar fmner ! I have a peculiar falvation for you. So 
yet again I lift up my watchword — Christ for all the world : 
all the world for Christ. Be you great fmner — poor fm- 
ner — old fmner — backfliding fmner — peculiar firmer — be you 
what you may, there is prefent falvation for you. Tell me your 
cafe, and I anfwer for it I will fhew you the Lord Jefus magni- 
fying His redeeming love — the fulnefs of His grace — the 
affluence of His righteoufnefs — the prodigality of His pardon- 
ing mercy in faving juft fuch a fmner as you are. 

But I would fain come clofer flill. I would feek to anticipate 
and relieve the doubts and haraffments of fouls before me, 
interpreting your needs by my own, and by thofe of anxious 
ones who have come to me as their minifter. 

Is there then any one before me who trembleth as often as 
* George Macdonald. Poems. 1857. 



62 



Mighty to Save!' 



he turneth to the Word of God — trembleth before the awful 
holinefs of the Book, and the God of the Book % My brother, 
my fitter ! I have good news for you — and you — and you. 
" To this man will I look, even to him . . . that trembleth 
at my word" (Isa. lxvi. 2). 

Is there any one before me who feels as though his faith had 
died out of him, fo that he cannot read, or think of Jefus with- 
out an awful "if" of doubt? Again, brother, fitter, I have 
good news for you, and you. I alk you if that poor, dittracted 
father, who came to Chritt for the healing of his "jDoffeffed" 
child — came to Chritt with your very " if" — " If thou canst 
do anything, have compaflion on us, and help us " — I alk if 
the Lord frowned him away — I afk if that doubting "if" drew 
forth fo much as a hard word % Nay, verily. He had come 
to Christ : and that blotted out the " if." Immediately there 
went forth from the Lord quickening power — the fpring of 
tears was touched — He "drew him with the cords of a man." 
" Straightway the father of the child cried out, and faid with 
tears, Lord, I believe f and added — mark the truthfulnefs of 
the man — "help thou mine unbelief;" and the full, pitying, 
delivering, faving anfwer came (Mark ix. 22, feq.*). My bro- 
ther, my fitter, try that. Get thee in all thy unbelief, with all 
thy unbelief, ufmg, if thou mutt, the " if," and I tell thee the 
relief will be given. " Wait, I fay, upon the Lord" (k). 

Is there any one before me in wearinefs and defpondency, 
becaufe of rettraint and conttraint in prayer ? Is the complaint 
that no words will come, jutt the old fame words, nothing elfe ? 
To you, too, my fellow-believer, my fellow-sufferer, for I alfo 
have known that — have known what it is to lie at the footttool, 
and have only piteous repetitions to offer, while at the very 
moment one's heart was gafping for articulate utterance of felt 

s Let the reader note how Chritt returns his "if" upon the man. Com- 
pare ver. 22 with ver. 23. 



" Mighty to Save." 



63 



needs — I bring good news. Our Lord and Matter knew this 
trial also. I turn to Mat. xxvi. 44 : " And Jefus left them, 
and went away again, and prayed the third time, faying the 
same words." * "We have not an high prieft who cannot 
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all 
points tempted (tried) like as we are" (Heb. iv. 15). u Like- 
wife the Spirit alfo helpeth our infirmities : for we know not 
what we mould pray for as we ought ; but the Spirit itfelf 
maketh interceffion for us with groanings which cannot be 
uttered" (Rom. viii 26). 

Is there any one before me " walking in darknefs" — any one 
to whom the vifion of Chrift, the Sun of righteoufnefs, is dim — 
"As when the fun, a crefcent of eclipse, 
Dreams over lake and lawn, and illes and capes." f 

— any one in lunelefs dark, labouring on " weary and heavy- 
laden ?" Liften, liften brother, filler : " Who is among you that 
feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His fen-ant, that 
walkeih in darknefs, and hath no light ? let him truft in the 
name of the Lord, and flay upon God" (Ifa. L 10). And yet 
again : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you reft" (Mat. xi. 28). 

Is there any one before me who, fpite of himfelf, herfelf, finds 
it hard in all the fervices of the fanctuary and of the clofet to 
be other than Doeg was, merely "detained before the Lord?" 
(1 Sam. xxi. 7). What then ! I give the anfwer of a venerable 
faint, long in glory — " By maintaining the fervices out of a 
•refpect to God, I will yet ferve Him. Though I find reafons 
to humble me, yet I will not fo as to keep me off my duties. 
Though I do want fpirit, yet I find an heart to pray and read. 
If I cannot ferve God with fmiles, yet I will with tears. If my 

* " In prayer we fhould not fo much affect expreffion, as exprefs affec- 
tion, Prov. xxiii. 26, Ps. xxv. I, Ifa. xxix. 13." — Church, p. 46. 
f Tennyfon. " The Vifion of Sin." 



64 



"Mighty to Save!' 



body will not carry my foul to duty, yet my foul shall hale my 
body unto it" (/).* 

Is there any one before me " mourning " in fecret forrow 
that his foul is as a " barren wildernefs," saying, I am a dry 
and dead tree ; yea, twice dead (albeit not yet plucked up by 
the root) ; and asking, Is there any, Oh ! any, hope that fuch a 
tree mould live or ever be recovered \ The Lord hath con- 
folation, my brother, for you. It is written, " Let not the 
eunuch fay, I am a dry tree" (Ifa. lvi. 3, 4). Let none there- 
fore fay, who is fenfible of his own unworthinefs, " Behold, I 
am not meet to receive grace from God." For thus faith the 
Lord to fuch eunuchs, to fuch felf-deje6ted fouls, who yet 
defire to be approved of Him in fulfilling what He hath 
ordained, "Even to them will I give within my house and 
within my walls a place and a name better than fons or 
daughters." Sweet encouragement ! The Lord will honour 
even fuch in His vineyard, the church ; will take away their 
reproach, and fuppiy them with thofe bleffmgs they fo bewail. 
And, my friends, has not God made good His pro.mife to others 
in all ages? Why then mould you defpond? "Ye do err, 
not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God" (Mat. 
xxii. 29).! 

Is there any one before me, any child of God, conftrained 
to cry out with Ifaiah, "Woe is me!" and with Paul, under 
the agony of felt remaining fin 1 My brother, my sifter, it muft 
be even fo until glory. " For it is with man," fays Bifhop 
Reynolds, " as it was with the houfe wherein was the fretting 
and fpreading leprofy, mentioned in Lev. xiv. 41. For though 
that houfe might be fcraped round about, and much rubbilh 

* From "The Anatomy of Secret Sins, Prefumptuous Sins, Sins in 
Dominion and Uprightnefs, " &c. By Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D. (1660, 
4to, page 244). 

f Cf. Nehemiah Rogers' " Figlefs Fig-tree" (1659, 4to, pp. 439, 440). 



Mighty to Save! 



and corrupt materials be removed, yet the leprofy did not ceafe 
till the houfe, with the {tones, and timber, and mortar of it, was 
all broken down. So 'tis with man. Grace may do much, 
and alter many things that were amifs in him, and make him 
leave many fins to which he formerly was given ; but to have 
fm wholly caft out and left, that is not to be expecSted till this 
earthly tabernacle of his body be by death pulled down and 
diffolved."* 

Is there any one before me, very defolate and very fad 
becaufe of bereavements and afflictions ; any faying in mourn- 
ful bitternefs, " It looks as if God's hand, and a heavy rod in 
His hand, were never to be off me?" Comfort, cheer, my 
brother, my sifter. Think a moment. No "ftrange thing" 
happeneth unto thee. The apoftle does not fay, "There is 
now no affliclion or no correction to them who are in Chrift," 
but (I fpeak in the words of good Dr Jacomb) " There is no 
condemnation to them who are in Chrift." It is one thing to 
be afflicled, another thing to be condemned, God may and will 
afflict His children, but He will never condemn them. It may 
be much affliclion, yet 'tis no " condemnation." Indeed, God 
afflicfts here that He may not condemn hereafter, i Cor. 
xL 32, "When we are judged, we are chaftened of the Lord, 
that we mould not be condemned with the world." God is fo 
gracious that He will not condemn ; yet withal fo wife, fo juft, 
fo holy, that He will afflict. Grace in the heart fecures from 
eternal, not from temporal, evils. God cannot condemn and 
yet love ; but He can chaften and yet love ; nay, therefore He 
chaftens becaufe He loves. " As many as I love I rebuke 
and chaften." "Whom the Lord loveth He chafteneth, and 
fcourgeth every fon whom He receiveth." The nearer a perfon 
is to Chrift, and the dearer he is to God, the furer he is to be 
punifhed if he fm. " You have I known of all the families of 
* " Sermon of the Sinfulnefs of Sin,' 1 page 144. 



66 



"Mighty to Saver 



the earth, therefore I will punish you for your iniquities" (Amos 
iii. 2).* My dear friends, draw nearer to the hand that holds 
the rod. It will lighten the blow. Ay, and you may yet come 
to find the rod budding, and bloffoming, and bearing fruit 
for you, and to lay it up in the ark of your memory befide the 
fweeteft pot of manna you have ever got. 

Is there any one before me wounded as in the " apple of 
the eye," through wrong from one loved and trufted'? My 
brother, my fifter, call to mind the fweet finger's " plaint : " It 
was not an enemy that reproached me ; then I could have 
borne it : neither was it he that hated me that did magnify 
himfelf againft me ; then I fhould have hid myfelf from him : 
but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine 
acquaintance. We took fweet counfel together, and walked 
from the houfe of God in company" (Ps. lv. 12-14). Nay, I 
admit the aggravation ! " The wounds we receive from bad 
men, deferved or undeferved, are foon healed again ; but 
when a good man ftrikes, and there is no caufe, the wound is 
poifoned."t True, molt true, but "caft thy burden upon the 
Lord : He will fuftain thee." 

Is there any one before me to whom there cometh " fiery 
darts" of very blafphemy; any one oppreffed with thoughts 
too horrible for confeffion even in His ear. My tempted, 
affailed, fearfully befet brother, fifter, for very life to the throne 
with thy temptation. There is pardon for blafphemy and blaf- 
phemers. " All manner of sin and blasphemy fhall be for- 
given to men" (Mat. xii. 31). Even "to the uttermost" He 
has mercy and grace. Let thy cafe be a cafe of very defpair, 
there is yet hope. Liften to the upholding counfels of a departed 
worthy — " Yours is a fad cafe, and not easily admitting remedy. 
Yet let me fay this cafe of defpair is not altogether without 

* From his treatife on Rom. viii. 1-4, page 7. 
t Froude. " Shadows of the Clouds," page 7. 



" Mighty to Save." 



67 



hope. If at any time they repent, they may be recovered out 
of the fnares and power of the devil, though taken captives by 
him at his will. If he fly to Chrift, He ' is able to fave to the 
utmoft' Believe it, there is not fo much malignity in all the 
fin of the world, or malice in Satan, as there is mercy in God 
and merit in Jesus Chrift, unlefs we mall fay finite is more than 
infinite, and the creature ftronger than the Creator. Add not 
therefore final impenitency to all former impiety, and obdurate 
unbelief to former difobedience, and defperation to thy long 
prefumption, and thou mayeft yet be fafe. For firft it is faid, 
Heb. vii. 25, Chrift is ' able to fave to the utmoft all that come 
to God by Him.' Therefore there is no doubting of His power. 
i Save to the utmoft/ Not to fuch or fuch a degree, no further, 
but further and further than ever thou haft finned. Many men 
have often finned to their utmoft, doing evil with both hands 
as they could. But Chrift never yet fhewed mercy or faved to 
His utmoft : but He is able to outdo all that we have done or 
can do, yea, to outdo all that Himfelf hath done, pardoning 
yet greater fins to penitents than ever yet were pardoned, if 
greater could be committed. Then, fecondly, confider further, 
that thou mightft not make queftion of His will, He hath faid, 
'I defire not the death of a firmer ' (Ezek. xviii. 23, and 
xxxiii. n). ' Him that cometh to me I will in no wise caft 
out' (John vi. 37). There is, you fee, power and will both 
engaged to ferve thee. So that it is not His 'will not,' but thy 
' will not,' hinders thy falvation. 6 Why will ye die V saith He ; 
'I would, ye would not' (Ezek. xviii. 31, and Mat. xxiii. 37). 
Nor is it God's 6 fhall not ' but thy 6 care not ' excludes thee 
heaven."* 

Is there any one before me confcious of being ftill " dead in 
trefpaffes and fins" — and now in remorfeful alarm and diftrefs? 
My brother, my fifter, blefs God for that alarm, for that dif- 
* John Sheffield, as before, pp. 90-92. 



68 



"Mighty to Saver 



trefs. It is the trembling of the needle as it feeks to point to 
the pole-ftar. Yea, He has willed this fear. What are His own 
words ? " Fear Him who after He hath killed hath power to 
cad into hell ; yea, I say unto you, fear Him" (Luke xii. 5). 
There is hope for you, O dead soul ! Look at this Bible-pic- 
ture and accredit me. I pafs into the woodland. I (land on 
a hill-fide, tawny-opaline with mofs. I mark a felled tree. 
The faw more (harp through it — the gleaming axe was " lifted 
up"' againft it — and there it lies. You look upon it : from bafe 
to upmoft bough it has been barked. Through long months it 
has lain under a blinding sun — winnowing. It is " very dry," 
Take up that lopped " branch." The twigs — leaves — buds — 
are all gone. Cut from the living tree, it is long dead : bared, 
peeled, it is "twice dead." It is a "brand" for the "fire." 
Ha! a prieft has lifted it up— moved, removed it. And now 
it lies upon the altar. A moment, and it crackles — roars in 
the flame of the altar-fire. Watch the red tongues playing, 
flickering, fluttering, ruddying in the creamy-white fmoke. The 
" brand" is a-blaze — is going to afhes. What is this ] Again 
the prieft lifts it up — lifts it out. The flame — the fmoke — the 
charring— the afhen-wafte forbid you to think he can be doing 
w r hat he feems to do ; and yet it is not feeming. He is taking 
that not merely fevered, but felled and barked, branch ; not 
barked merely, but winnowed, dried ; not winnowed, dried 
merely, but (hapened "brand" fire-log; not fire-log "brand" 
merely, but a-blaze, half-confumed ; and he is planting it, as if 
a rooted tree, in the green earth. Return a few 7 months hence, 
a year, and you will fee it toffing out-flung boughs and 
milling leaves, in the golden funlight, a very living tree again. 
I fpeak in parable. Behold in that " burning brand," God's 
own fymbol of how far a finner may have gone in fpiritual 
death, and yet be planted in His vineyard. Liften, as I read : 
Zech. hi. 1, 2, "And he (hewed me Jofhua the high priest 



h Mighty to Saver- 



(landing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan ftanding at 
his right hand to refill him. And the Lord faid unto Satan, 
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan • even the Lord that hath 
chofen Jerufalem rebuke thee : is not this a brand plucked 
out of the fire?"* Even so. Wherefore, sirs! be your 
cafe hopelefs apparently as was the cut, barked, peeled, win- 
nowed, dried, blazing " brand," of ever being again a living tree, 
there is yet a hand to " pluck you out of the fire," and fave you 
" as by fire." Let your cry afcend — 

"Leave me not, God, until — nay, until when? 

Not till I have with Thee one heart, one mind ; 
Not till the life is light in me ; and then 
Leaving is left behind." f 

Is there any one before me — in conclusion here, for were I 
to purfue the multitude of experiences within even my own 
knowledge and reading, " I fuppofe that even the world itfelf 
could not contain the books that fhould be written" (John 
xxi. 25) to meet the individual specialty of the myriads of 
men — faying, " But I am a mean linner ; it is only my mifery 
that drives me to Chrift'?" My brother, filler, your idea is one 
the fervant of Chrift often meets with. I have to anfwer, that 
fenfe of ' meannefs, ' of "fear," is equally God's gift with 
faith. He knows bell how to draw His creatures to Himfelf ; 
and if He has ufed the fcourge of mifery, the fcorpion-whip of 
fear of hell — fo be it. Be grateful that the grand queftion is 
not, " Why have you come V but Have you come 1 Give the 
Lord Jefus Chrill the glory of tranfmuting your meannefs into 

, humility, your terror into "godly fear," that "by any means 

I your foul may be faved" {in). 

Thus, my dear friends, every want and every wanter has 

* This, I apprehend, too little regarded paffage will form the fubject of 
another of the addreffes in my fourth volume, 
t George Macdonald. Poems. 1857. 

F 



7o 



" Mighty to Save!' 



fupply in the Lord Jefus. I care not who comes to me, I care 
not what neceffity is confided, I care not how peculiar the 
experience be, I have provifion for it in the gofpel. I ring out, 
therefore, my watchword once again — Christ for all the 
world ; all the world for Christ. He is " mighty to 
fave," from His supplies for man. 

I obferve, finally, that the Lord Jefus is " mighty to fave," — 

IV. From His Relations to Man. 
LL the other qualifications and attributes were in vain ? 
in fo far as man, needing the falvation of his foul, is 
concerned, if the "mighty" One — who in His know- 
ledge is omniscient, in His power is omnipotent, in His 
supplies is infinitely full, — had not related Himfelf to us. Of 
this we have a dread monumental evidence in the angels " who 
kept not their firft eftate." But, indeed, this is fo felf-evidenc- 
ing, that it demands the briefeft elucidation and enforcement. 
Obferve fummarily then, my friends, that the Lord Jefus, as very 
Man as well as very God, has brought Himfelf into the clofeft, 
as into the tenderer!, relations to man. The proclamation of 
the angels over the fields of Bethlehem was, " Unto you is born 
a Saviour" (Luke ii. n). With all things elfe there is birth- 
relationfhip. He took unto Himfelf " a body," became man, 
" God manifefted in the flejh" the " fulnefs of the Godhead 
embodied" (i Tim. hi. 16, Col. ii. 9). Thus, Son of God and 
Son of Man, He took His place as the " firft-born" of God and 
the Head of the great human family. It was, therefore, His 
divinely-human and humanly-divine prerogative to be the 
Redeemer of man. This is dimly reprefented in the office 
fuftained by the first-born in the families of Ifrael. It was 
his part to redeem his brethren from bondage, debt, and from 
whatever other difficulty they might have fallen into. They 
could appeal to him. Even fo — though merely human " fhadows" 



" Mighty to Save!' 



muft ever be fhadowy and faint reprefentations of " the good 
things to come" — our bleffed Lord affumed the office of 
Redeemer of the loft human family, not by arbitrary decree, 
not by felf-appointment, but, as I have faid, through the pro- 
foundeft and tendereft relationfhip to mam Liflen to the 
argument of Paul : " No man taketh this honour unto himfelf, 
but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So alfo Chrift 
glorified not Himself to be made an high prieft, but He 
that faid unto Him, 1 Thou art my Son ; to-day have I begotten 
Thee" (Heb. v. 5). You remember, too, Peter's glowing words 
(A6ls v. 21), " Him hath God exalted with His right hand, to 
be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance unto Ifrael, 
and forgivenefs of fin." The Lord Jefus Chrift, then, is related 
to man, and in that relationfhip worked out the atonement, 
while the gofpel is one grand invitation addreffed to every 
man, to accept the relation, and the falvation accruing. God 
in Chrift ftoops ; man in Chrift afcends. Matter that, and you 
have mattered the very gofpel. O my fellow-man, it will avail 
you nothing to have that omnifcience, that omnipotence, that 
I infinite fupply, that relation of Redeemer, kinfman-Redeemer, 
outside of you. You mutt get into Chrift, lay hold of Chrift, 
ttretch out weak hand of faith to His mighty hand. 

But here, my brethren, mittake not ; go not away making a 
faviour out of your faith, as though it were to fave you. I tell 
' ' you Christ, and Christ only, saves you. 

Take a familiar illustration, familiar to all of you. Look at 
I that locomotive, as it fnorts like a giant war-horfe to its place in 
i the ttation at the head of the train. You have in that engine, 
■ power of amplett capacity to drag at fwifteft pace the far-ttretch- 
1 ing carriages. Boiler, tubes, pittons, fire, tteam — all are in per- 
j fedt order ; and that broad-browed, lamping-eyed, a-dutt man 
gives affurance of tried ability to guide the charge committed to 
him. You look : carriage after carriage is filled, the hour has 

I 



72 



Mighty to Save! 



ftruck, the bell rung, and yet there is no departure, no movement, 
nor would be till " crack of doom," if one thing remained as it 
now is. Aha ! the lack is difcovered : the uniting hooks that 
bind engine and train together were awanting. They have been 
Cupplied. Like two great hands they have clafped, and a fcrew 
has fo riveted engine and carriage, that they form, as it were, 
one thing, one whole ; and away through the dark fweeps the 
heavy-laden train, with its freight of immortals. Mark, no one 

EVER SUPPOSES THAT IT IS THE UNITING-HOOK, OR LINK, OR 

coupling, that draws the train. A child knows that it is the 
engine that draws it, Neverthelefs, without that hook, or link, 
or coupling, all the power of the engine were of no avail ; the 
train mould (land Hill for ever. Exactly fo, my brethren, is it 
in the relation of faith to Chrift. It is not our faith that 
saves us, but Christ that saves us. Yet muft faith lay hold of 
Chrift, elfe Chrift avails nothing. It is a w r onder and a forrow, 
that what is fo palpable in ordinary affairs, mould be fo darkened 
and confufed in the momentous matter of the falvation of the 
foul. Bleffed be our God, this fo needed hand, this " grace" that 
appropriates Chrift is, with Chrift Himfelf, "the gift of God." 

I do not fuppofe it can be needful to dwell longer upon the 
relations of the Lord Jesus Christ, as qualifying Him to 
be " mighty to fave." It needeth not that I now fet forth the 
bleffed commonplaces of His being our Prophet, Prieft, and 
King. It needeth not that I expatiate upon His appointment 
and anointment. It needeth not that I unfold the luftrous 

doctrines" of divine ordination, divine qualification, divine 
inveftiture, divine acceptance. It needeth not that I recur to 
His glorious attributes for the outworking of the great errand. 
It needeth not that I call upon you to mark how, if any one 
was fitted to make men fons of God, it was the Lord Jefus, the 
Son of God. It needeth not that I prefs the overwhelming 
truth, that not only was He the Holy One, but the One Holy, 



" Mighty to Save!' 



73 



the only one who could have been fent to accomplifh the needed 
redemption. Thefe, and kindred trains of thought, I have had 
many occafions to put before you. The one thing that now I 
would have you carry away is this, that this divine Saviour, in 
all His omnifcience, omnipotence, and infinite fupplies, is 
related to us, and thus is ftill further " mighty to fave." 

Fix, therefore, eye of faith, heart of love, upon this affuring 
relationlhip and this unchallengeable authority.* 

Yes ! Eighteen hundred years ago, He who is " mighty to 
fave" came down to our earth, took unto Himfelf a u body 
prepared," in our nature lived, obeyed, fuffered, died ; and when 
His awful work was done, when, amid the preternatural gloom 
of Calvary, He poured out His foul " unto death" as the Surety 
of fallen man, He " made an end of fin," " fmifhed tranfgref- 
fion," " He was wounded for our tranfgreffions, He was bruifed 
for our iniquities, the chaftifement of our peace was upon Him, 
and with His ftripes we are healed" (Ifa. liii. 5) ; and now 
returned from His awful exile unto the throne, grafping in 
His hand, not reed of mockery, but the fceptre of the univerfe, 
wearing again the flaming crown of heaven, no longer the thorn- 

* Authority, Had not my time (and now fpace) been more than filled 
up, I might have enlarged upon the authority of Chrifl to be the Saviour of 
fmners. Emphafis muff be laid upon this. I may have (every jailor indeed 
has) a key that would open every cell-gate, and let out every prifoner ; but 
> I, as the jailor does, need authority from the law. Chrift has the great key. 
I He beareth it upon His moulder. For I read, Rev. iii. 7, " Thefe things 
faith He that is true, He that hath the key of David; He that openeth, and 
none fhutteth ; and Ihutteth, and none openeth," even as Ifaiah had pro- 
I claimed, " The key of the houfe of David will I lay upon His moulder : fo 
He fhall open, and none mail fhut ; and He mail fhut, and none lhall open" 
.1 (xxii. 22). 

The relations of the Lord Jefus to God the Father is another afpecl: of 
our inquiry that contains precious comfort in it ; but it falls not new to be 
confidered, as neither does His equivalent knowledge of God, power with 
■ God, fupplies as God. and relations to God, 



74 



" Mighty to Save!' 



circlet, worfhipped again by the adoring hofts of angel and arch- 
angel, and the multitude of the " redeemed," He ftill remembers 
us, even us, as we tread life's dufty highway as " followers of 
Him." My brethren, by faith look up. Yonder ftands our 
ever-living High Prieft Yonder is our kinfman-Redeemer. 
Yonder is our Dayfman, laying a gentle human hand upon 
man, and a divine hand upon God, and fo " mediating" between 
both. Friendlefs ones, you have a Friend on the throne. And 
fo again, and ftill again, I blow my filver trumpet of a good 
news," Christ for all the world \ all the world for 
Christ. " If any man fin, we have an Advocate with the 
Father, Jefus Chrifl the righteous ; and He is the propitiation 
for our fins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole 
world" (i John ii. i, 2). Surely, as you remember the "glad 
tidings" concerning Him who is " mighty to fave," which have 
thus been brought nigh to you, you will join with me in pre- 
fenting on this fide, the adoring fong, " Bleffing, and honour, 
and glory, and power to Him that fitteth upon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb, for ever and ever" (Rev. v. 13). "Who is this 
that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah % 
this that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatnefs 
of His ftrength? I that fpeak in righteoufnefs, mighty to 
save." 

To my fellow-believers I have only one glad word. Let us 
"rejoice" in our Saviour, Let us " ftand faft" againft all 
adverfaries. For "greater, ftronger is He who is in us, than 
he who is in the world." Let us go out and in in humble 
thankfulnefs that our Father's eye is ever upon us — that under- 
neath are the everlafting arms — that we have infinite fupply to 
draw upon — and that " we have not an high prieft who cannot 
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but One in all 
points tempted like as we are, yet without fin." "Let us 
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may 



" Mighty to Saver 



75 



obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 
iv. is, 16). 

To my fellow-men who never have experienced their need 
of One " mighty to fave," never have felt their fin, never have 
realifed the end, I have a folemn meffage of warning — a 
meffage of affectionate and anxious entreaty in my Matter's 
name. 

Sirs, I would difcharge my office. " God was in Chrift re- 
conciling the world unto Himfelf, not imputing their trefpaffes 
unto them ; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 

NOW THEN WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, AS THOUGH GOD 
DID BESEECH YOU BY US ' WE PRAY YOU IN CHRIST'S STEAD, BE 

ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. v. 19, 20). " JVow" "To- 
day, " is the accepted time. Men — fmners — have refufed, 
delayed, neglected, and been lost — lost — lost. I gaze 
wiftfully around me. Is it, Oh, is it to be fo with any of you 1 
Hufh, heart of mine. " Who among us fhall dwell with the 
devouring fire ] who among us mail dwell with everlafting 
burning" (Ifa. xxxiii. 14). 

Recently a refident in India was feated under the verandah 
of his garden. That morning his little girl had loft a pet lamb. 
He heard a ftirring among the furfe at the foot of his garden. 
Joyfully he heard it : for he remembered his Mary's tears, and 
was glad in the thought of reftoring her lamb. He left his 
feat, croffed the lawn, croffed a dingle, followed a winding 
path, paffed through a wicket-gate, paffed among the furfe, 
1 faw the lamb, went forward, lightly, gaily forward — a moment, 
and he was in the jaws of a lion. Alas ! alas ! he thought to 
find a lamb and he found a lion — found himfelf carried off into 
the jungle, and in an inftant was dead. Even fo, my fellow- 
men, He who is now the "Lamb of God" who "taketh away 
the fins of the world " will one day be the "Lion of the tribe of 
Judah" tq rend you — you — you — you — to pieces. "Thofe 

i 



7 6 



" Mighty to Save!' 



mine enemies which would not that I mould reign over them, 
bring hither and slay them before me" * (Luke xix. 27). 

No. I would not, cannot, end with words of terror. I would 
not exhibit the dark pillar of cloud, but the guiding pillar of 
fire. I would win, woo, melt, if the Lord will. I pray God to 
give my meffage a baptifm of His Spirit : and as I began, fo 
would I read out and out to all my watch-word, 

;Christ for all the world : all the world for Christ. 

" Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from 
Bozrah 1 this that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the 
greatnefs of His ftrength? I that fpeak in righteoufnefs, 
mighty to save." Amen and Amen (n). 

* 4 'The giving of the law was terrible. Oh, what fhall the day of 
accounts be?" — Church, as before, p. 30. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Maris ignorance of his fellow-man. — (a) Page 27. 

WOULD note here a recent remarkable hiftoric 
example of our ignorance of the mind and motives 
of thofe we are fwift to judge. When the prefent 
Emperor of the French affirmed the ftyle of Na- 
poleon III. , the prefs of France and of Europe faw 
in it profound ftatecraft — interpreted it as an affer- 
tion, fpite of 44 univerfal fuffrage," of unbroken 
inheritance from Napoleon the Great. It turns out 
to have been a mere clerical error. Kinglake in- 
forms us, on what he feems to regard as well- 
authenticated grounds, that in the courfe of the preparation for conftituting 
the Empire, the Home Office wilhed the country to take up a word which 
mould be intermediate between 44 Prefident" and 44 Emperor;" fo the 
minifter determined to order that France mould fuddenly burfh into a cry of 
44 Vive Napoleon ! " and he wrote, they fay, the following order, 44 Que le 
mot d'ordre foit Vive Napoleon ! ! ! " - The clerk miftaking the three notes 
of admiration for Roman numerals, in a few hours the forty thoufand com- 
munes of France had cried out fo obediently for 44 Napoleon III.," that the 
government was obliged to adopt the clerk's blunder. (Invafwn of the 
Crimea, Vol. I. p. 320.) 

The God of the Word rather than the Word of God.—'\b) Page 28. 

This is hardly the place, perhaps, for criticifm of the original, yet I 
would afk any fcholar who may read my pages, if the 0 koyo; of Hebrews 




78 



" Mighty to Saver 



iv. 12 be not the 0 ^0^0; of John? I would further query if the fame re- 
mark does not hold of Ephefians vi. 17? I cannot allow myfelf to think 
that the apoftle can intend to fend the tried and troubled believer to the 
Bible rather than to Chrift. I interpret the counfel to inculcate a perpetual 
" taking hold" of Chrift. Compare alfo John v. 39, 40. 61 Ye fearch the 
fcriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they are they 
which teftify of me : and ye will not come TO me that ye might have life." 
If I do not ftrangely miftake, the Lord warned here againft letting even the 
Bible come between Him and the foul. Not "in them" but in Him is 
" eternal life." They but tell of, guide to, Him. It is to miftake a finger- 
poft for the crofs, to fo flop fhort at the Bible. Bibliolatry, orthodoxy 
without fpirituality, muft not be miftaken for Chriftianity. 

Intentions. — (c) Page 28. 

The original expreffes "intention, purpofe, thought," with the element 
of longing, which our tranflators have excellently, indeed felicitoufly, caught 
by " intents," = ftretching toward. We have an amazing Old Teftament 
text delineative of God's anticipatory knowledge of man's thoughts. I can 
only for the prefent quote it. The Lord is telling Mofes of the future 
apoftafy of His people — Deut. xxxi. 16-21. In the end of the laft verfe 
we read, " For I know their imaginations which they go about, even 

NOW, BEFORE I HAVE BROUGHT THEM INTO THE LAND WHICH I SWARE." 

Combine the Old Teftament and New Teftament references, and what a 
view have we of the Divine knowledge ! 

Omnifcience of God. — (d) Page 36. 

Omnifcience. I feel ftrongly tempted to confirm my own words with 
many choice quotations from the Puritans that crowd upon me for a place. 
I muft content myfelf with one, pretty lengthy, from the rich folio of 
Obadiah Sedgwick, B. D., entitled, " The Bowels of Tender Mercy Sealed 
in the Everlafting Covenant " (1661), which is full as the honeycomb is ot 
honey, with the fweeteft and moft alluring truths of the gofpel, all put with 
a loving earneftnefs and pathos that feem irrefiftible. I am fure every reader 
will thank me for thefe unctioned pleadings with the foul for God. 

" God is an omniscient God. He knows all things whatfoever, and all 
perfons, and all conditions, and all the hearts, and all the counfels and 
thoughts and words and ways of all men, at all times and in all places ; and 
that moft clearly and perfectly by His own infinite light. He knows all 
that is paft and all that is prefent, and all that is future and all that is poffi- 



Mighty to Save!' 



ble. Heb. iv. 13, 'There is not any creature that is not manifeft in His 
fight : but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom 
we have to do.' Confider this place feriouuy, which declares God's om- 
XISCIE^ T CE. ' There is not any creature that is not manifeft in His fight. ' 
There be many millions of millions of creatures, and they be far and near 
over all the world ; but whatfoever they are, and wherefoever they are, they 
are ' manifeft in His fight. ' Though they be hid from us, yet they are 
known to God ; and though they be out of our fight, yet are they ' manifeft 
in His fight. ' They are before His eyes which 1 run to and fro throughout 
the world.' 4 And all things are naked and open to His eyes.' There is 
no darknefs 'twixt Him and them ; no curtain is drawn over His eye, They 
are as naked to Him as the child which is newly bom is unto our eye ; or 
as every pile of grafs is difcovered by the fun at noon-day ; or as the parts 
of a difeafed body, &c. Pfa. cxxxix. 2, ' Thou knoweft my down -lying 
and my up-rifmg ! Thou underftandeft my thoughts afar off,' ver. 3. ' Thou 
art acquainted with all my ways, ' ver. 4. ' There is not a word in my 
tongue, but lo ! O Lord, Thou knoweft it altogether. ' 

" Queft. You will fay this is granted : it is very unqueftionable that God 
is omnifcient, that He knows all things. But what is this for the comfort 
and good of His people ? "What good have they by being interefted in an 
all-knowing God ? 

" Sol. 1. The good and comfort thereby is exceeding great ; for God's om- 
nifcience is, as it were, the key to open all His other attributes. It is the 
fpring which fets them all to work, and without which they could not work 
at all for your good. Though the Lord be an all-fufnciency, yet, unlefs He 
were omnifcient, unlefs He did know all your wants, what good could 
His all-fumciency do you ? And though the Lord be of a very merciful 
nature, ready to pity and help, yet, unlefs He did know your miferies, He 
could not help you in your miferies. It is His omnifcience which doth, if 
I may be fo bold to exprefs it, acquaint and inform all His other glorious 
attributes, and put them on and draw them out to work for our good. 

" Sol. 2. That the omnifcient God is your God, this is an unfpeakable com- 
fort unto you, whether you confider what He knows, or how He knows, as 
concerning yourfelves. For what He knows as concerning yourfelves and 
your conditions, ' The Lord knoweth who are His ' (2 Tim. ii. 19). He 
knows the integrity of your hearts, notwithftanding all your weaknefs and 
failings. ' But the high places were not taken away, 7ieverthelefs the heart 
of Afa was perfect all his days' (2 Chron. xv. 17; 2 Sam. vii. 20). 
'Thou, Lord, knoweft Thy fen-ant' (John xxi. 17). 'Lord, Thou 
knoweft all things ; Thou knoweft that I love Thee.' He knows all your 



So 



" Mighty to Save? 



wants and all your diftreffes. 1 1 know thy works and tribulations and 
poverty,' faith Chrift to the church of Smyrna (Rev. ii. 9). Your heavenly 
Father knoweth ; that you have need of all thefe things 1 (Matt vi. 32). 
He knows all your deft res and prayers and tears (Rom. viii. 27). ' He 
that fearcheth the heart knows what is the mind of the fpirit ' (Pf. xxxviii 9}. 
' Lord, all my defire is before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from 
Thee ' (Pfa. lvL 8). ; Put Thou my tears into Thy bottle : are they not 
in Thy book ? ' He knows all your active and pajjlve fervice in His caufe 
for His glory ; all the good that ever you have done, and all the evil that 
ever you have fuffered " (Rev. ii). 

" How He knows you and all your conditions. 

' ; He doth know all the conditions of His people with a knowledge — 
" I. Of approbation. The Lord ; knoweth the way of the righteous' 
(Pf. i. 6) ; that is, He likes their way, He approves of their way ; fo 
Rev. ii. 9, • I know thy works, ' that is, I like them exceeding well, I am 
pleafed to fee them. 

4; 2. Of compajfion. The Lordfaid, 4 1 have furely feen the afflictions of 
my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reafon of their 
tafkmafters, for I know their forrows ' (Exod. hi. 7). If one loved us 
much, but did not know our wants and conditions ; if one did know all our 
conditions, but did not love us, it were fad ; but God knows and loves, &a 
As a father knows the diftreffes and wants of his child, and pities the child 
in that condition, his bowels are troubled for him, and if he can he will re- 
lieve him ; fo, &c. 

"3. Of condefcenfion ; that is, He knows your wants and defires, and He 
will help you, and He will fupply you. ' Your heavenly Father knows 
that you need all thefe things ' (Matt. vi. 32). What is that ? That is, 
He will fupply your need according to His riches and glory ; fo Exod. hi. 7, 
' I know their forrows. ' This is explained in ver. 8, i And I am come 
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them 
up out of that land unto a good land ; fo Nahum i. 7, ' The Lord is good, a 
ftronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that truft in Him ; ' 
that is, He will do them good : they fhall find Him to be as good as His 
word, and He will help and deliver them. 

" Sol. 3. The omnifcience of God is a comfort unto you againfl all your 
enemies' counfels, plots, reproaches, injuries. Jer. viiL 23, 1 Lord, Thou 
knoweft all their counfels againfl me to flay me.' Pfa. lxix. 19, 'Thou 
haft known my reproach and my (name and my diihonour : mine adversaries 
are all before Thee.' Ifa. xxxvii. 28, 'I know thy abode, and thy going 
out and thy coming in, and thy rage againft Me.' And how doth the Lord 



" Might}' to Save. 



81 



know your enemies and their plots ? &c. Even with deteftation, and deri- 
fion, and oppofition, and judgment, and deftruction. 

"Sol. 4. The omnifcience of God is a comfort unto you in this refpect. 
that it is a foundation and fountain of all faying knowledge in you. God 
knows you, and you mail know Him. ' I will betroth thee unto Me in 
faithfulnefs, and thou fhalt know the Lord ' (Hos. ii. 20;. ' They fhall 
ail know Me ' (Jer. xxxi. 34). ' He knows you for his people, and yon 
lhall know the Lord for your God ' (2 Tim. ii. 19}. ' The Lord knoweth 
who are His ;' ' They mall know that I am the Lord their God ' (Ezek. 
xxwiii. 26 ; fo Ezek. xxxix. 22). He perfectly knows you ; and the time 
lhall be that you fhall perfectly know Him : you fhall ' know, even as you 
are known' (1 Cor. xiii. 12)." — Pp. 35, 36. 

For very remarkable thinki7ig on the omnifcience and omnipotence of God 
in relation to the freedom of the will, and efpecially for profound prefenta- 
tion of truth on the univerfal acting of thefe attributes of Divine Love (Spe- 
cially adhering to that name of God), I cannot too earneftly recommend the 
thin folio of Peter Sterry, entitled, "A Difcourfe of the Freedom of the 
Will" (1675). The maffive Calvinifm of this extraordinary book of an 
extraordinary thinker is informed by a fubdued glow of Myfticifm or Neo- 
Platonifm, which imparts a fbrange fafcination to his ftyle. 

Reprobation. — (e) Page 47. 

Reprobation. I gladly introduce here the following well-put expoftula- 
tions from an old writer, whofe too little known books for fulnefs of truth 
and vivacity and paffionatenefs of ftyle ftand almoft alone — John Sheffield, 
one of the " ejected " of 1662. The paffage is taken from his " Sinfulnefs 
of Evil Thoughts " (1659). 

" But if thou fhalt yet perfift in thy wilful rejecting the mercy, and put- 
ting away the kingdom of God from thee, with that foul cavil and blackeft 
objection in all the Bible, ' On, but I am a reprobate!"' and if our trans- 
greffions and fins be upon us (Ezek. xxviiL 10), and we pine away in them, 
how can we then live ? fay they. And Job once, 'If I be wicked, why 
labour I in vain ? ' (Job. ix. 29} q. a 7 ., I may as well fit ftill ; all endeavours 
are in vain. 

" I anfwer, 1. God hath nowhere declared of this, that, or any man, that 
he is a reprobate ; no man can fay it of himfelf, no man may fay it of 
another ; nor doth Satan or any angel know who is a reprobate. Election 
may at length come to be known, and thence affurance, but reprobation 
kever. So long as there is life there is hope ; for though he that is in 



82 



Mighty to Save" 



ftate of grace to-day fhall be to-morrow, yet you cannot fay he that is in 
Hate of wrath to-day fhall be to-morrow. Who can tell how long and how 
far one may go in a way of fin ere he come to be paft grace never to return ? 

44 1 anfwer, 2. Doth not the Lord fay, 4 As I live, I defire not the death 
of a fmner?' (Ezek. xxxiii. 2). Turn and live, repent ; fin fhall not be your 
ruin. It is not God's eternal decree of reprobation, therefore, doth make 
thee incapable of falvation, but thy own wilful fin, and perfi fling in it 
Caft away thy fin ; thou fhalt never be a caftaway ! Thy sin is the bar, 
not God's decree (Ezek. xviii. 31 ; 1 Sam. xv. 23). None are rejected 
by God, but fuch as with Saul have firfl rejected the word of the Lord. 
In a word, it is thy election and love of fin that thou haft more caufe to 
fear than God's reprobation and hatred of thee. 

44 Again, I fay, confider of it ; doth not the Lord call ALL MEN everywhere 
to repent ? and fay, He is not willing any mould perifh, but all come to 
repent ? (Acts xvii. 30 ; 2 Pet. 3, 9 ; 1 John v. 10). And wilt thou ex- 
clude thyfelf, and make God a liar ; fetting His fecret decree againft His 
revealed will ? He hath commanded the gofpel to be preached 4 to every 
creature ' (Mark xvi. 15, 16) ; and faid, 4 He that believeth fhall be faved : 
he that believeth not fhall be damned. ' And, therefore, as I would not 
fear to fay to an elect, as to Solomon, If thou forfake the Lord, He will 
caft thee off for ever (1 Chron. xxviii. 9) : fo to a Cain, if thou do well or 
repent of evil, fhalt thou not be accepted ? (Gen. iv. 7). As the mofl 
righteous hath no caufe to hope, notwithftanding his election, if he repent 
of his repentance, and turn from his righteoufnefs ; fo the unbeliever and 
unrighteous, notwithftanding any decree of reprobation feared, hath no 
caufe to defpair if he break off his fin (Ezek. xviii. 24 and 27 compared). 

4 4 Further, I fay the pit hath not yet fhut her mouth upon thee ; nor is 
the gulf fixed. There is a poffibility of falvation to any yet living. While 
there is life there is hope. Out of the hell of defpair there is redemption ; 
though out of the defpair of hell there is no redemption. . . . Therefore 
fay, 4 1 will look up to His holy temple, I will look up to the mercy-feat ; 
and if I perifh, I will not perifh with my hands in my bofom, but I will 
repent, mourn, pray ; and when I have done my part, the Lord do with 
me what He will.' 

44 1 have read of one in defpair whom Satan perfuaded it was in vain to 
pray or ferve God, for he muft certainly go to hell ; who yet went to prayer, 
and begged of God that if he muft go to hell when he died, yet He would 
pleafe to give him leave to ferve Him while he lived, upon which his terrors 
vanifhed ; being clearly convinced none could pray that prayer that had 
finned the fin againft the Holy Ghofl. 



" Mighty to Save." 



83 



" Still again let me fay to thee as Tamar to Amnion in another cafe : 
This later evil in turning mercy out of doors is worfe than the former in 
abufmg it, and forcing it to ferve thy lufts. Both are nought [== naught, 
wicked], this worfe. The fin of Cain defp airing was worfe than the killing 
his brother. There he wronged juflice, here mercy ; thereby he violated 
the law, hereby he difparaged the gofpel ; thereby he fet light by the blood 
of his brother, hereby of the blood of a Saviour, which crieth louder for 
better things than the blood of Abel for vengeance. We fay the like of 
Judas's defpair ; it was a greater fin than the betraying of his Mailer. 

" Laftly, If thou muft have examples to encourage thee, who fayeft none 
was ever fuch a one as myfelf, and pardoned, confider what is written in 
Scripture. Manaffeh was a man given over to all wickednefs ; an idolater, 
corrupter of God's worfhip ; a man of blood ; a confulter with familiar 
fpirits ; the greateft contemner of the prophets and commands of God 
that could be (2 Chron. xxxiii. 3-7), yet found mercy when he was 
humbled. And Paul, who had been before a perfecutor and a blafphemer, 
and injurious in the higheft degree to make him the greatefb of fmners, yet 
found mercy (1 Tim. i. 13-15). We could inflance in fome others of our 
own knowledge having many gracious experiences of that truth. ' Where 
fin hath abounded grace hath more than abounded, fuperabounded ; and 
where fin hath reigned as a tyrant unto death and condemnation, grace hath 
reigned as a gracious king, unto eternal life, in acts of pardon and mercy 
through Jefus Chrift. ' 

" But I fhall content myfelf to give thee one as fad an example as you 
mail ordinarily meet with out of Aretius [in Matt. xii. 32] ; a godly and 
eminent author fpeaking of the fin againft the Holy Ghoft, ' I faw,' faith 
he, ' and knew the man myfelf, and it is no feigned ftory. There was. ' 
faith he, ' a merchant in Strasburg, whofe whole life was abominable for 
whoredom, ufury, drunkennefs, contempt of God's word ; he fpent his life 
in gaming and whoring to his old age. At laft he came to reflect on hirm 
felf, and be fenfible of the dreadful judgments of God hanging over his head. 
Then did his confcience fo affright, and the devil accufe and terrify him, that 
he fell into open and downright defperation. He confeffed and yielded 
himfelf to the devil as being his. He faid, the mercy and grace of God 
could not be fo great as to pardon fms fo great as his. Then what horror 
was upon him, gnafhing of teeth, weeping, wailing ; yea, he would chal- 
lenge Satan, and wilh the devil would fetch him away to his deftined tor- 
ments. He threw himfelf all along upon the ground ; refufed both meat 
and drink. Had you feen him you could never have forgot him while you 
had lived ; you had feen the fulleft pattern of a defpairing perfon. Yet, ' 



8 4 



Mighty to Saver 



faith he, 1 ' after the many pains of godly and learned men who came to 
him, watched with him, reafoned with him, laid open the word and will of 
God, and after many prayers, public and private, put up for him, at length 
he recovered, and became truly penitent ; and having lived pioully for cer- 
tain years, after he died peaceably. ' Wherefore, he concluded, it is not an 
eafy matter to determine of any man finning againft the Holy Ghoft, and 
incapable of mercy fo long as he live." — (Pp. 92-98.) My copy of this 
pricelefs book bears the marks of apparently long-fhed tears, and on one of 
the margins is written here, M Glory to God." 

I add a kindredly urgent and Scriptural appeal from Nehemiah Rogers : — 
" Is this fo, that God is ready to forgive every true penitent ? Then let none 
lay the fault upon God if they perifh in their fms ; for God is ready and de- 
firous to forgive, and doth often call upon us to turn from our evil ways, 
that fo we might not perifh. But if the Lord would not the deftruclion of 
the wicked, it could not be. This is well anfwered by one of the fathers. 
God willeth, and willeth not, the deftruclion of a fmner in a diverfe fenfe. 
He willeth not their deftruction as concerning the defert ; for in that ref- 
pecl He faith, ' Thy deftruction is of thyfelf, O Ifraei ' (Hos. xiii. 9). But 
as it is the punilhment of fin and manifeftation of the glory of His juftice, 
fo He willeth it. Accufe not, then, God at any time, if any deftruclion hap- 
pen unto you, but lay the whole blame thereof where it mould be laid, viz. , 
upon yourfelves, whofe hearts are hard and will not repent. Seeing this is 
fo, that God is ready to mew mercy to every one that feeks it, let this be 
as a fpur and goad in our fides to make us turn unto Him, and feek for 
mercy at His hands. He will not be wanting to thee, if thou beest not 
wanting to thyfelf. If there be not wanting one to alk, there will not be 
wanting one to hear. Let there be a repentant offender, and there will be 
a gracious forgiver. Say but with David in the truth of thy heart, 4 1 have 
finned, ' and thou fhalt foon hear the Lord make anfwer, ' The Lord hath 
done away thy fin, ' " [" True Convert." — Expofition of the Parable of the 
Loft Son, pp. 235, 236 ; but the whole context will abundantly reward 
perufal. ] 

Eleclion and Prcdejlination. — (/) Page 49. 

Election — Predeftination. I add here fome choice paffages from the 
elder worthies, that may be accepted as enforcing my teaching as to how 
we ought to deal with thefe " fecret things." 

(1.) Dr Richard Sibbes. — On 2d Cor. ii. 9 he fays : " For them that 
love Him." Why not for thofe that God hath elected ? Why doth he not 



Mighty to Save!' 



go to the root of all the great things that God hath prepared for thofe that 
He hath chofen to falvation ? No ; that is out of our reach. He would not 
have us go to heaven, but rather go to our own hearts. We mud fearch 
for our election, not above ourfelves, but within ourfelves" (p. 20). 

Again : — " Satan abufeth many poor Chriflians. Oh, I am not elected ; 
I am not the child of God. Whither goeft thou, man ? Doft thou break 
into heaven, when thou carrieft a foul in thy breaft, and in that foul the 
affection of love ? How is that fet ? Whither is thy love carried, and thy 
delight and joy, thofe affections that fpring from love ? Thy evidence is in 
thine own heart" (pp. 131, 132). 

Further: — "Therefore, dark disputes of election and predeftination, at 
the nrft efpecially, let them go. How ftandeft thou affected to God and to 
good things ? Look to thy heart, whether God have taught it to love or 
no, and to relifh heavenly things. If He hath, thy ftate is good. And then 
thou mayeft afcend to thofe great matters of predeftination and election. 
But begin not with thofe, but go nrft to thine own heart, and then to thofe 
deep myfteries afterwards. If a man love God, he may look back to elec- 
tion and forward to glorification, to the things that eye hath not feen, nor 
ear heard." But fee nrft what God hath wrought in thy heart, what affec- 
tion to heavenly things ; and thence from thy affections to go backward to 
election and forward to glorification, there is no danger in it" (pp. 159, i6o ; . 
[" Glance of Heaven ; or, A Precious Tafte of a Glorious Feaft." i8mo. 

1638.] 

(2.) George Swinnocke, M. A. : — " The decree of God is a fealed book, 
and the names in it are fecret ; therefore thy part is to look to God's revealed 
will — namely, to make thine election fure, by making thy regeneration fure. 
Doft thou not know that fecret things belong to God, but revealed things 
to us and our children ? Oh 'tis dangerous to meddle with the feerets of 
princes. " 

Again : — "This opinion is not believed by thee, but is only pretended, 
as a cloak for thy wickednefs and idlenefs ; for if thou doft believe that, if 
God hath elected, He will fave thee, however thou liveft, why are not thy 
practices anfwerable to fuch principles ? why doft thou not leave thy ground 
unfowed, and thy calling unfollowed, and fay, If God hath decreed me a 
crop of corn, I mail have it, whether I fow my ground or no ; and if God 
hath decreed me an eftate, I mall have it, though I never mind my calling ? 
Why doft thou not neglect and refufe eating, and drinking, and fleeping, 
and fay, If God hath decreed that I fhall live longer, I mall do it, though I 
never eat, or drink, or fleep ? For God hath decreed thefe things concern- 
ing thy ground, eftate, and natural life, as well as concerning thine eternal 

G 



86 



" Mighty to Save!' 



condition in the other world. When I fee that thou throwefl off all care 
and means of preferring thy life on earth, and expecteft, notwithftanding, 
to continue alive, then I may believe that thy forementioned thoughts are 
really fuch in regard of eternal life ; but till then I lhall be confident that 
this conclufion is only a feigned plea in the behalf of the devil and thy 
carnal corruptions." ["The Door of Salvation Opened by the Key of 
Regeneration." 3d Edition. 4to. 1 671. Pp. 240, 241.] 

(3.) Samuel Rutherford : — " Suppofe a rope caft down into the fea for 
the relief of a company of poor ftiipwrecked men ready to perifh, and that 
the people in the fhip or on the fhore fhould cry out unto them to lay hold 
on the rope that they may be faved, were it not unfeafonable and foolish 
curiofity for any of thefe poor diftreffed creatures now at the point of death 
to difpute whether the man that caft the rope did intend and purpofe to 
fave me or not, and fo minding that which helpeth, not neglecl: the means 
of fafety offered. . . Thus it is that Chrift holdeth forth, as it were, a rope 
of mercy to poor drowned and loft finners. It is our part, then, without 
any further difpute, to look upon it as a principle afterwards to be made 
good, that Chrift hath gracious thoughts towards us ; but for the prefent to 
lay hold on the rope. And as the condemned man believeth firft the king's 
favour to all humble fuppliants, before he believes it to himfelf, fo the order 
is, being humbled for fin, to adhere to the goodnefs of the promife, not to 
look to God's intention in a perfonal way, but to His complacency and ten- 
dernefs of heart to all repentant finners. This was St Paul's method, 
embracing by all means that good and faithful faying, ' Jefus Chrift came 
to fave finners,' before he ranked himfelf in the front of thofe finners. 
1 Tim. i. 15." [Sermon before Houfe of Commons. 1643. 4to.] 

(4.) Thomas Fuller, B.D. — " Cardinal Pole, a good man though a 
Papift, being de fired by one to tell him how he might come to underfland 
the former part of St Paul's Epiftles, which are, for the moft part, doctrinal 
pofitions, made this anfwer : by a careful practifing of the latter part of the 
fame epiftles, which confift much in precepts and directions, how to lead a 
life in all godlinefs and holinefs of converfation. And thus if any man 
defire to know the former part of predeftination, whether his name be writ- 
ten in the Book ot Life ; whether he be of the election of grace ; whether 
he be predeftinated to life eternal, let him but look into the latter part of 
predeftination, the means as well as the end of predeftination ; whether his 
converfation be in heaven ; whether his life be fuitable to the profeffion of 
the gofpel of Chrift : and though he meet with many rubs in the way, and 
through frailty ftumble and fall, yet rifeth again and preffeth on to the mark 
of the high calling of God in Chrift Jefus. Thus if a man do, he may con- 



" Mighty to Save!' 87 



elude himfelf to be within the number of the elect ; and this is the right ufe 
that is to be made of the doctrine of predeftination ; but it is otherwife with 
too too many in thefe all-queftioning days of ours, For whereas St Paul 
prefents us with a chain let down from heaven (Rom. viii.), election and 
predeftination at one end of the chain, and glorification at the other end 
thereof ; both which ends God keepeth faft in His hand : as for the middle 
links of the chain, calling and j unification, thofe He leaves for them to lay 
hold on ; but they cannot be quiet, but muft be tugging and labouring to 
wreft thofe parts out of God's hands, and fo mifs of the right ufe and com- 
fort that is to be found in the abftrufe yetfweet doctrine of predeftination. " 
[" Sermon at St Clements, London," one of many " Notes " from Fuller's 
unpublifhed " Sermons," contained in Spencer's KAINA KAI IIAAAIA, 
folio, 1658, page 603.] 

(5.) Thomas Adams. — " A fenator relating to his fon the great honours 
decreed to a number of foldiers, whofe names were written in a book, the 
fon was importunate to fee that book. The father fhews him the outfide. 
It feemed fo glorious that he defired him to open it. No. By no means ; 
it was fealed by the council. Then, fays the fon, tell me if my name be 
there ? The father replied, the names are fecreted to the fenate. The fon, 
ftudying how he might get fome fatisfaction, defired him to deliver the 
merits of thofe inferibed foldiers. The father relates to him their noble 
achievements and worthy acts of valour wherewith they had eternifed their 
names. " Such are written,' faid he, 6 and none but fuch muft be written 
in this book. ' The fon, confulting with his own heart that he had no fuch 
trophies to fhew, but had fpent his time in courting ladies rather than en- 
countering knights ; that he was better for a dance than a march ; that he 
knew no drum but the tabret ; no courage but to be drunk. Hereupon he 
prefently retired himfelf, repented, entered into a combat with his own 
affections, fubdued them, became temperate, continent, valiant, virtuous. 
When the foldiers came to receive their wreaths, he fteps in to challenge 
one for himfelf. Being alked upon what title, he anfwered, * If honours 
be given to conquerors, I have gotten the nobleft conqueft of all.' 
4 Wherein ? ? * Thefe have fubdued ftrange foes, but I have conquered 
myfelf. ' Now, whofoever thou art that defireft to know whofe names are 
written in heaven, who is elected to life eternal, it fhall not be told thee 
this or that individual perfon ; but generally thus, men fo qualified, faithful 
in Chrift and to Chrift, obedient to the truth and for the truth ; that have 
fubjected their own affections, and refigned themfelves to the guidance of 
the heavenly will. Thefe men have made noble conquefts, and fhall have 
princely crowns. Find but in thyfelf this fanclit?iony, and thou art fure of 



" Mighty to Save! 



thy election. In Rome the pafres confcripti were diftinguifhed by their 
robes, as the liveries of London from the reft of the company ; fo thy name 
is enrolled in the legend of God's faints, if thy livery witnefs it, that thy 
6 converfation is in heaven,' I John iii. 16." .[" Happinefs of the 
Church."] 

(6.) Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D. One of his many melting appeals may 
fitly clofe thefe citations : — 

" God hath not only fitted a Saviour for thee, but He comes near unto 
thee with Him. He deals mightily with thy foul to believe on Him. 

44 Thou haft the word of revelation to this very day, wherein the myftery 
of thy falvation is made known and clear unto thee. Thou needeft not to 
fay in thine heart, 4 Who fhall afcend into heaven to bring Chrift down 
from above ; or who fhall defcend into the deeps to bring up Chrift again 
from the dead ? ' But the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy 
heart ; that is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou fhalt confefs 
with thy mouth the Lord Jefus, and fhalt believe in thine heart that God 
hath raifed Him from the dead, thou fhalt be faved, Rom. vi. 7-9. 

4 4 Thou haft the word of gracious propofition. God hath offered Chrift 
with all His plentiful redemption, with His ftrong falvation unto thee ; 
yea, He hath affured thee by His word of truth, which cannot lie nor 
deceive, that 4 if thou believeft on Him thou fhalt be faved by Him,' 
John iii. 16. 

44 Thou haft the word of injunction, which lays a bond of duty upon thee. 
4 This is the commandment, that we believe on the name of His Son 
Jefus Chrift,' John iii. 23. 

4 4 Nay, thou haft the word of penalty and correction. God hath faid that 
He will judge thee for not believing, and that in the fharpeft method of 
expremon, 4 He that believes not fhall be damned.' 

44 Nay, thou haft the word of obfecration and gentle entreaty. God ftoops 
infinitely below Himfelf. He doth ftrain courtefy with thee. God doth 
4 befeech you by us, and we pray you in Chrift's ftead to be reconciled to 
God/ 

4 4 Nay, thou haft the word of expoflulation. Why will you not believe ? 
Why will ye die in your fins ? Why will ye not come to me that you may 
be faved ? How often would I have gathered thee ? All the day long have 
I ftretched forth my hands. 

4 4 Nay, thy unbelief grieves the very heart of Chrift. 4 He grieved at 
their unbelief.' He complains of that flownefs in the heart to believe. 
4 O, flow of heart to believe.' Nay, and He fheds tears becaufe thou doft 
not believe and receive Him. 4 When He came near the city He wept 



" Mighty to Save." 



89 



over it. O Jerufalem ! thou that, &c. How often would I, &c.' " ["The 
Humbled Sinner Refolved what he mould do to be Saved." 4to. 1660. 
Pp. 165, 166.] 

I add a faying of a pre-eminent layman, John Selden: — 44 They that talk 
nothing but predeftination, and will not proceed in the way of heaven till 
they be fatisfied in that point, do as a man that would not come to London 
unlefs at his firft ftep he might fet his foot upon the top of St Paul's." 
["Table Talk." Edit, by Singer. 1847. P. 175.] 

My readers will find it worth while to confult Yarrow's 44 Soveraigne 
Comforts for a Troubled Conscience" (1634. i8mo.), efpecially cxxviii.- 
xxxi. on 44 Election ;" and alfo Gove's 44 Saints' Honeycomb" (i2mo. 
1652) ; Rogerf's 44 True Convert" (4to. 1632), pp. 235-241 ; and Plaiferes 
Appello Evangelium (1652. i2mo). 

Power of Chrift. — (g) Page 49. 

The power of the Lord Jefus. Speaking of the faith of Abraham in the 
power of God, Dr Spurftowe thus addreffes the believer : — 4 4 And thus 
mould every believer, as a true child of Abraham, endeavour to do, in look- 
ing from themfelves unto the power of God for the making good of any 
promife which they in prayer do earneflly feek ; in faith, do really believe ; 
in hope, do patiently wait for and expect. And though difficulties and 
temptations mould arife, which their reafon cannot anfvver, their ftrength 
cannot repell ; yet not to caft away their confidence, but to caft them- 
felves upon Him who is both the ftrength and wifdom of His people ; with 
whom things that are utterly impoffible with men, are not only poffible, but 
eafy for Him to bring to pafs and to effect. Oh, the happy peace and 
ferenity that a believer enjoys in every eftate and condition which befalls 
him, that can thus reft and flay himfelf upon the promife and power of 
God ! No valley of trouble will be to him without a 4 door of hope no 
barren wildernefs without manna ; no dry rock without water ; no dungeon 
without light ; no fiery trial without comfort, becaufe he hath the fame 
Word and the fame God to truft unto, whofe power opened the fea as a 
door to be a paffage from Egypt to Canaan ; who fed Ifrael in the defer! 
with bread from heaven, and water from the rock ; who filled Peter's prifon 
with a lhining light ; who made the three children to walk to and fro 
amidft the fiery furnance with joy and fafety." [ 44 The Wells of Salvation 
Opened" (1655. i2mo), pp. 56, 57.] Thus quaintly alfo does Robert 
Dingley fet forth Chrift as 44 mighty to fave" from His power : — 44 ' Strong ; 
He rejoiceth as a ftrong man to run his race' (Ps. xix. 5) ; and 4 He goeth 



90 



" Mighty to Save!' 



forth in His might,' faith Deborah (Judges ii. 21). The motions of Chrift 
are ftrong and powerful, efpecially when He comes to convert fouls, to help 
His people and avenge Himfelf on His enemies. 1 He travels in the great- 
nefe of His ftrength, and is mighty to fave ' (Ifa. lxiii. i). This is plainly 
fpoken of Chrift and His motions toward His church. He travels in His 
ftrength, and who (hall let or hinder Him ? Now, Samfon was herein a 
type of Chrift, and that both in his name and arm. I. In his name, 
Sampfon, whether with Jerome you interpret it 4 their fun,' or with 
Mercerius ' a little fun.' Samfon cheered the hearts of men in thofe dark 
and fad times of idolatry and oppreffion ; yet he was but a little fun in 
refpect, of Chrift, whom he did typify, 6 the Sun of righteoufnefs, ' who is 
fo exceeding great and glorious that God thought fit to inure the people's 
eyes by looking firft on a leffer light, John the Baptift, who is prefently 
foretold after my text, and was before Chrift arofe, c a burning and mining 
light.' 2. As Samfon was a type of Chrift in his name, fo in his arm, in 
his ftrength ; for Sampfon grew, 4 and the Spirit waxed ftrong in him,* fo 
as he became a faviour of incomparable ftrength. Thus Jefus Chrift grew 
1 in ftature and in favour with God and man ;' and the Spirit was fo ftrong 
in Him, becaufe unmeafured, that He became a Saviour too ftrong for in- 
fernal powers : He flew that roaring lion the devil, and fubdues our hearts. 
He laid heaps upon heaps, and deftroyed more enemies by His death than 
His life." [" Meffiah's Splendour ; or, the Glimpfed Glory of a Beauteous 
Chrift" (1649, i2mo), pp. 198, 199.] 

The Neglected, — (h) Page 51. 

As I pafs this through the prefs, a noble article in the Times reaches me. 
Thus wifely and thrillingly does the writer commence : — "When Henry 
IV. wifhed he could know there was a fowl Hewing in every poor man's pot 
throughout France, he fpoke the very effence of that optative philanthrophy 
which is rife, and fympathifing, and amiable, and popular, and commonly 
ufelefs in all ages and in all countries. We all wifh the world was much 
better than it is. We all with that every one had at leaft enough to eat and 
drink, and a good roof and warm clothing. What could be more horrible 
than the flory we publifhed yefterday of the poor old feamftrefs, more than 
feventy years old, dying of fheer want, and fitting up in bed, attempting, 
as her eyes glazed, to make fhirts at three-halfpence a-piece ! This was not 
in Lancafhire, but in London, clofe to hundreds of thoufands of rich people 
who will read thefe lines. Of courfe if any of us had known of that par- 
ticular cafe, it would not have happened. There is no one who would not 



"Mighty to Save. 



9i 



have gone or fent and put the poor old creature in comfort." — {March 
20. 1863.) 

Comparifons. — (/) Page 51. 

I am fare my readers will thank me for fubjoining Mifs Procter's tender 
and, alas ! too true Lay of the " Homelefs." Its fad farcafm cuts to the 
very heart :— 

" It is cold dark midnight, yet listen 
To that patter of tiny feet ! 
Is it one of your dogs, fair lady, 
Who chines in the bleak, cold street? 
Is it one of your silken spaniels 
Shut out in the snow and the sleet 

"My dogs sleep warm in their baskets, 
Safe from the darkness and snow ; 
All the beasts in our Christian England 
Find pity wherever they go. 
Those are only the homeless children 
Who are wandering to and fro. 

" Look out in the gusty darkness — 
I have seen it again and again, 
That shadow that flits so slowly 
Up and down past the window pane,— 
It is surely some criminal lurking 
Out there in the frozen rain ? 

"Nay, our criminals all are sheltered, 
They are pitied, and taught, and fed ; 
That is only a sister-woman 
Who has got neither food nor bed — 
And the night cries ' Sin to the living, 
And the river cries 1 Sin to the dead.' 

" Look out at that farthest corner, 
Where the wall stands blank and bare ; 
Can that be a pack which a pedlar 
Has left and forgotten there ? 
His goods lying out unsheltered 
Will be spoilt by the damp night air. 

"Nay; goods in our thrifty England 
Are not left to lie and grow rotten, 
Eor each man knows the market value 
Of silk, or woollen, or cotton, 
But in counting the riches of England 
I think our poor are forgotten. 



92 "Mighty to Save!' 



" Our beasts, and our thieves, and our chattels. 
Have weight for good or for ill ; 
But the poor are only His image, 
His presence, His word, His will ; 
And so Lazarus lies at our door-step, 
And Dives neglects him still." 

From A Chaplet of Verses, by Adelaide A. Procter. 1862. 

Take thy cry, reader, over thefe paffionate words. It may do thee good. 
Impart thy good. 

Serpent-bitten Ifraelites. — (/) Page 54. 

The unreftricted, unexcepting, proclamation addreffed to all Ifrael to look 
to the uplifted ferpent, received new meaning and new precioufnefs when 
the Lord Himfelf took it as a fpecimen of how He was to be " preached" 
of to a perilhing world. I refer to His memorable words to Nicodemus, 
"As Mofes lifted up the ferpent in the wildernefs, even fo muft the Son 
of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him mould not perifh. 
but have eternal life" (John iii. 14, 15). Very mournful is it that men 
mould pervert this grace of God, and act as if becaufe all are invited to 
look and live, they will live whether they look or no ; as if becaufe the 
broad warrant runs, " zvhofoez'er believeth," they will be faved, whether 
they believe or disbelieve. It is not without profound fignificance that the 
doctrines of grace are pronounced in fuch inftances to be a " savour of 
death unto death." Their very gracioufnefs is perverted, as the fubtlefl 
poifons have been given in fcents. The more an unconverted man takes 
encouragement and licence to abide unconverted becaufe of the fulnefs of 
the Divine mercy and grace, holding that fimply as a doctrine, i.e., without 
perfonally accepting the Lord Jefus as his Saviour, the more does he turn 
what is a " favour of life unto life, " into a favour carrying death with it. 
What a mournful reverfal of the Divine intention to thus turn a " favour" 
fweeter than the typical incenfe, into a deadly thing : worfe, by the meafure 
of the interefls involved, than diftilling the fair afphodel into the drunkard's 
draught. 

Doubt.— (k) Page 62. 

Perhaps nowhere in any literature has the "if" fpoken of been fo force- 
fully, and all too faithfully uttered, as in the remarkable poem below 
entitled, " The Doubter's Prayer.'* 



:< Mighty to Save." 



93 



" Eternal Power of earth and air ! unseen, yet seen in all around, 
Remote, but dwelling everywhere ; though silent, heard in every sound. 
If e'er Thine ear in mercy bent, when wretched mortals cried to Thee, 
And if, indeed, Thy Son was sent to save lost sinners such as me : 
Then hear me now, while kneeling here, I lift to Thee my heart and eye, 
And all my soul ascends in prayer, Oh, give me — give me faith ! I cry. 
Without some glimmerings in my heart, I could not raise this fervent prayer ; 
But, Oh I a stronger light impart, and in Thy mercy fix it there ; 
While faith is with me I am blest ; it turns my darkest night to day ; 
But while I clasp it to my breast, I often feel it slide away. 
Then, cold and dark, my spirit sinks, to see my light of life depart ; 
And every fiend of hell, methinks, enjoys the anguish of my heart : 
What shall I do if all my love, my hopes, my toil, are cast away, 
And if there be no God above to hear and bless me when I pray ? 
If this be vain delusion all, if death be an eternal sleep, 
And none can hear my secret call, or see the silent tears I weep ! 
Oh help me, God ! for Thou alone canst my distracted soul relieve ; 
Forsake it not ; it is Thine own ; though weak, yet longing to believe. 
Oh drive these cruel doubts away, and make me know that Thou art God ! 
A faith that shines by night and day will lighten every earthly load. 
If I believe that Jesus died, and, waking, rose to reign above, 
Then surely sorrow, sin, and pride, must yield to peace, and hope, and love. 
And all the blessed words He said will strength and holy joy impart ; 
A shield of safety o'er my head, a spring of comfort in my heart." 

From " Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Aclon Bell" [The Brontes], 1846, 
pp. 97-99. The above is by Aclon. 



Duty of the Unconverted. — (/) Page 64, 

John Sheffield has put the duty even more ftrongly and univerfally. He 
fays even of wicked men — "They are yet to pray, and to perform duty, 
4 Pray Magus,' (Acts viiL 22). Let wicked men pray, let them fmg pfalms, 
let them hear ; I do not fay, let them be wicked. It is their fin if they do 
not pray, is not their fin to pray. Say not, my children mall not pray, nor 
be taught to pray till they be holy and fanctined. As fome pray by the 
Spirit, fo others pray for the Spirit firft. . Refufe not to join fuch who are 
no faints, in finging, praying, &c, which are the proper works of faints. Let 
wicked ones pray, I fay, but let them repent as well as pray. 1 Repent of 
this thy wickednefs, and pray ' (as before, p. 13). Surely we have a very 
important principle enforced here and above. Our duty is plain, whatever 
our Jlate be. Moreover, in ufmg the appointed means, in dif charging the 
appointed obligations, we are placing ourfelves in contact with the God o 
the means and of the obligations. We, fo long as we are unchanged, un- 



94 



Mighty to Save!' 



converted, can think no right or good thought, or do any right or good 
action fpiritually ; but let us perform them, and in the very performance, 
the ' dry bones,' the putrid Lazarus, will fooner or later hear the Divine 
quickening word, ' Live.' We cannot explain how the interceflion of the 
ever-living High Prieft touches us and our fervices ; but this we know, He 
does intercede, and is in ever-prefent, omnifcient contact with us. When 
will men learn that it is Chrift zvho faves alone, not our prayers or fervices ; 
and that all that reaches Him, from converted and unconverted alike, 
receives its value from Him only. — (See Prefatory Note.) 

Fear — Meannefs. — (m) Page 69. 

I cannot withhold a very admirable anfwer to the above — very common 
objection — which is found in what Milly fays to Nina in Mrs Stowe's 
" Dred " [end of c. xii.]. " I 'member once, when you was a little weety 
thing, that you toddles down dem fteps dere, and you flips away from dem 
dat was watching you, and you toddles away off into de grove yonder, and 
dere you got picking flowers, and one thing and another, mighty tickled and 
peart. You was down dere 'joying yourfelf, till, by-and-by, your pa miffed 
you ; and den fuch another hunt as dere was. Dere was a hurrying here 
and a looking dere ; and finally your pa run down in the woods, and dere 
you 'd got ftuck faft in de mud, both your fhoes off, and well fcratched with 
briers ; and dere you flood a-crying and calling your pa. I tell you, he faid, dat 
ar was de fweeteft mufic he ever heard in his life. I 'member he picked you 
up, and came to de houfe kimng you. Now, dere 'twas, honey ! You did'nt 
call on your pa till you got into trouble. And laws, laws, chile, dat's de 
way with us all. "We never does call on de Father till we gets into trouble ; 
and it takes heaps and heaps of trouble fome times to bring us round. Some 
time, chile, I'll tell you my 'fperience. I's got a 'fperience on this point. 
But now, honey, don't trouble yourfelf no more ; but juft afk your Father 
to take care of your 'fairs, and turn over and go to fleep. And He '11 do it. 
Now you mind." 

For a fmgularly able and exhauflive handling of the whole queflion of 
Fear as a means of driving to God, confult Sedgwick's Anatomy (as before), 
pp. 232-237. 

Boohs. — (n) Page 76. 

{n.) The old Divines contain wealth of invaluable thought, with every 
variety of ingenious elucidation and illuftration on the qualifications of Chrift 



" Mighty to Save. 



95 



for His office of Saviour, efpecially as Prophet, Prielt and King, a three- 
fold exhibition of the Lord which they never weary in making. I regret 
that I cannot here give many golden paffages that rife up in my memory. 
I muft content myfelf with a few references, intentionally confining myfelf 
to lefs known worthies. The following will fcarcely ever be confulted in 
vain on any of the points brought up in my book : — 

(I.) The Humbled Sinner Refolved what he mould do to be Saved ; or, 

Faith in the Lord Jefus Chrift the only way of Salvation, &c. By 

Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D. 4to. 1660. 
(2.) Thirty-One felect Sermons preached on fpecial Occafions. By William 

Strong. 4to. 1656. (See efpecially xxvii. " Chrift' s inftrumental 

ntnefs for his Father's ends.") 
(3.) The Crown and Glory of Chriftianity ; or, Holinefs the only way to 

Happinefs. By Thomas Brooks. 4to. 1662. 
(4.) A Treatise of the Incomparablenefs of God in His Being, Attributes, 

Works, and Word, opened and applied. By George Swinnocke, M.A. 

i2mo. 1672. 

(5.) God's Drawing and Man's Coming to Chrift. By Richard Vines. 
4to. 1662. 

(6.) Refrefhing Streams flowing from the Fulnefs of Jefus Chrift. By 

William Colvill. 4to. 1655. 
(7.) Several Difcourfes tending to promote Peace and Holinefs among 

Chriftians. By Thomas Manton, D.D. 1685. Cr. 8vo. (See efpecially 

u No Excufe againft a fpeedy obeying Chrift's call.") 
(8.) The Myftical Brazen Serpent, with the Magnetical Virtue thereof ; or, 

Chrift exalted upon the Crofs, &c. By John Brinfley. 1653. Cr. 

8vo. (All Brinfley's books are good, and all w teftify of Chrift," as do 

fpecially thofe of the next Author.) 
(9.) A Difcovery of Glorious Love ; or, the Love of Chrift to Believers 

opened in the Truth, Tranfcendency, and Sweetnefs thereof, &c, &c 

By John Durant. 1655. l2mo. 

None of thefe works — a few out of many now before me — are readily met 
with, but let my readers fnatch up any one whenever it turns up, and I am 
fure they will never regret paying even a goodly price for it. 





Z' ENVOY. DEO DATA. 



" The heart that feeks for happinefs in grandeur, beauty, lore, 

Muft leave them all in turn, like one that begs from door to door. 
Oh, but he walks a weary round, and follows a fad dance ! 
I reach my home a nearer road, and go to God at once. 

" Though grateful for the Hermon-drops earth's humbler fky may Ihed, 
I bear the flagons of my foul to the great Fountain-head ; 
Care, ftalking o'er our hearts, may leave full many a deep footprint, 
But with His over-flowing grace my Lord fills every dint. 

' ' He gives us — what He finds our fouls too poor in prayer to alk — 
He gives us, left we fmk in floth, fome gracious over-talk ; 
He takes away the boons He gave, and why, I know not yet, 
But this I know, when mod He takes, I'm deepeft in His debt." 



From " Brooklyn Parfonage : a Metrical Tale. By Earnest Warmley, 
M.A." [=J. B. Manson, Efq., of Edinburgh] 1857. 




EDINBURGH: 
Printed by Jjhn Greig Son, Old Physic Gardens. 



VOLUMES PROPOSED TO BE ISSUED BY 
SAME AUTHOR. 



1. Small Sins. Already printed privately, and yivsx publijlied by Meffrs 

Tames Nisbet & Co., Berners Street, London. 

2. Mighty to Save ; or, Christ for all the World : All the 

World for Christ. (The prejent volume.) 

3. The Prince of Light and the Prince of Darkness in Conflict. 

( In immediate preparation. ) 

4. Recollections of my Prayer-Meetings in Kinross and Gairney 

Bridge. 

5. Consolation for "The Poor in Spirit." 

6. Thoroughness. 

Mr Grosart has to intimate that, having been requested, since issuing " Little Sins," 
by his friend. James Nichol, Esq., Publisher, Edinburgh, to edit one or more volumes of 
select minor Treatises of the Puritans, he has arranged vrith him to do so ; and it is probable 
that the proposed reprints specified at end of " Little Sins " will be of the number. Conse- 
quently, he suppresses his own. The above volume or volumes will form part of Nichol's 
Series of Standard Divines of the Puritan Period, which already embraces the Works of 
Dr Thomas Goodwin (6 volumes) ; Thomas Adams (3 volumes) ; Dr Richard Sibbes 
(3 volumes) ; the last, with Memoir, under Mr Grosart' s editorship. Besides the re- 
maining volumes of Goodwin and Sibbes, the Series will ultimately contain the complete 
Works of Manton, Charnock, Reynolds, Clarkson, Henry Smith, and Thomas Brooks, 
the last also, with a Memoir, edited by Mr Grosart. Full Prospectuses, with opinions 
of the press, may be obtained from Mr Nichol, 104 High Street, Edinburgh. A greater 
boon has not been conferred upon the Church of Christ, in the shape of books, for many 
a long day. Apart altogether from his own share in the Scheme, Mr Grosart feels bound 
to thus spontaneously commend and recommend it wherever his voice or printed words 
may reach. The whole of the books included in this Series have the rare merit of 
being eminently practical and spiritual ; and while based on the highest scholarship 
of the period, of being adapted equally for " the common people " with ministers of 
the Gospel. 

a 



MSS. OF JONATHAN EDWARDS OF AMERICA. 



Having in his poffeffion various unpublished manufcripts of the pre- 
eminent theologian and metaphyfician Jonathan Edwards, Mr Grofart 
feels difpofed to partially meet a very frequently urged requeft, by printing 
a limited private impreffion of them. He is not at liberty, in view of a 
long-intended really worthy edition of the collective works, if once the 
lamentable civil war were ended — to publish. But there is no obftacle to 
fuch private circulation of comparatively a few copies. 

He propofes to include — 

I. A Treatise on Grace ; a completed manuscript, divided into chapters and sections, 
and carefully prepared for the press by the illustrious author. 

Mr Grosart has no hesitation in affirming that this Treatise must at once take its 
place beside the priceless "Religious Affections," alike from its kindredly profound 
thinking and " savour." It extends to 119 small quarto pages, closely written. 

II. Selections of Annotations from his interleaved Bible — Old and New Testament. Full 
of suggestions, and informed by a fine spirit. These are quite distinct from the 
" Notes " already published. 

III. Specimens, with fac similes, of the preparations for his ordinary Sermons. These 

will prove indisputably, that Edwards's name is unwarrantably adduced in de- 
fence of "reading" instead of "preaching" the Gospel. 

IV. Letters. 

V, Reprint from the original MSS. of portions of the Treatise on the * Freedom of the 
Will," &c, &c, shewing interesting variations. 

The impression it is intended to strictly limit to 250. Copies will be furnished in the 
order of application, and duly delivered at any address in London, Edinburgh, or Glasgow, 
which may be given. The volume will consist of a handsome 8vo, cloth extra, to range 
with the extant editions of the Works. The price, it is calculated, will not exceed 6s. 6d. 
per copy, plain, and 7s. 6d. thick toned paper ; the latter limited to 50. Persons who 
may wish a copy or copies of either kind will be so good as send their names and order 
to the Rev, Alexander B. Grosart. 1st Manse, Kinross. 



I 



Class 

Book 

DOBELL COLLECTION 



